Political contention over TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline is rife with rhetoric and claims of environmental apocalypse, as the paperwork for the proposed 1,700-mile Canada-U.S. pipeline gathers dust on President Obama’s in-tray. If approved, the $7 billion expansion will transport Canadian crude oil from the Athabasca Oil Sands in northeastern Alberta, Canada, southeast through the U.S. Midwest, and then on to the Gulf Coast.

While gas prices hover around $4 a gallon — and in some cities surpass $4.50 a gallon — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is planning a Senate vote this week to annul tax credits and exemptions for oil companies.

The Obama administration is surging forward with a first-of-its-kind EPA rule for new power plants, in what Republicans and industry groups say will inflate electricity prices and possibly kill off coal, the preeminent U.S. energy source. The EPA announced the rule Tuesday, with a goal to curb carbon dioxide emissions by imposing strict regulations on new coal-fired plants, including a limit that caps plant emissions to not more than 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour of energy generated.

In a new, first-ever analysis, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) issued a report showing that there were 3.1 million "green" jobs in the United States in 2010, or 2.4 percent of the nation’s overall employment. Green Goods and Services jobs, the BLS indicates, "are found in businesses that produce goods and provide services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources."

President Obama embarked on a four-state energy tour this week and made his first stop in Boulder City, a Nevada town about 20 miles outside Las Vegas. The town is home to the Copper Mountain Solar 1 Facility, the largest photovoltaic solar power plant in the United States, where the President renewed his support for the solar industry.

Millennials and Generation Xers have adopted a reputation for being environmental idealists, but according to a new analysis, young Americans are less interested in becoming those "green" warriors that many have presumed them to be. Published this month by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the study compiled an analysis of surveys spanning four decades, and resolved that conserving resources and becoming more environmentally conscious are less important to young Americans than they were to their elders.

As gas prices loom near the $4-a-gallon mark, the Obama administration has been hit with a public outburst that could prove politically lethal. And while the President is quick to emphasize that he does not favor high gas prices, his administration is toting heavy baggage in the area of energy policy.

A heated issue now being debated amongst President Obama, congressional members, and the general public is the tumultuous rise in gas prices that Americans are now faced with daily. House Republicans have ramped up efforts to expose Democrats and the President for their purported resistance to oil development and energy independence.

To purportedly tame the progressive rise in gas prices, President Obama visited a North Carolina truck manufacturer on Wednesday to unveil a new $1 billion plan to advocate electric and alternative vehicles through consumer incentives and federal grants for states.

The Obama administration continues to deflect blame over soaring gas prices, and conservatives and congressional Republicans have been quick to excoriate the President for his costly environmental measures. President Obama’s energy policies, critics allege, have prompted not only an increasingly heavy burden at the gas pump, but also are shaping a progressive rise in Americans’ electric bills.