Republicans drew some political blood Thursday from the Obama administration Thursday when the embattled head of a loan program at the Department of Energy that oversaw a loan to Solyndra stepped down from that position.

Jonathan Silver, the executive director of the Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office, stepped down from that position amid scrutiny from congressional Republicans over loans granted to the now-bankrupt energy firm Solyndra. Energy Secretary Steve Chu told the Post that the departure had been planned.

Sick of high energy prices? You may soon have more relief than you’d like.

After two commodity price spikes in four years, $100-a-barrel crude and $4-a-gallon gasoline are starting to seem like the new normal — the price we pay, unhappily enough, for an expanding economy. Every twitch in the Middle East sounds the alarm for a new oil shock.

WASHINGTON — Worries about nuclear power plant safety reached Capitol Hill Wednesday as senators questioned the nation’s top nuclear regulator about whether his agency was doing enough to avert a Fukushima-type disaster in the united States.

“I’m looking to you for more leadership than I’ve gotten,” Senate Energy and Public Works Committee chairman Sen. Barbara Boxer told Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission at a hearing of her committee.

Washington (CNN) — Just two months ago, California residents living near a controversial nuclear power plant grilled nuclear regulators over the reactor’s safety at a public hearing.

At issue was the 2008 discovery of a previously unknown earthquake fault located less than a half mile off shore from the plant.

“Can you be sure there isn’t another fault out there,” asked one woman at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission hearing.

WASHINGTON — The White House and key lawmakers in both parties cleared the way Thursday night for swift Senate action to avert a Jan. 1 spike in income taxes for most Americans, agreeing to renew expiring breaks for ethanol and other forms of alternative energy.

Tax provisions aimed at increasing production of hybrid automobiles, biodiesel fuel, energy-efficient homes, coal and energy-efficient household appliances would be extended through the end of 2011 under the bill, according to a summary that circulated in Congress.

It’s not just the 4th of July holiday that’s raising memories of revolution. The idea of active anti-government resistance, once the province of the fringe or a mere historical parable, is now a common component of the national discourse. If all the voices actively calling for or raising the specter of insurrection since Obama’s election in 2008 were to have their way, there would be a logjam of militias on the White House lawn. Three-cornered hats and muskets would sell out in minutes. They’d have to institute a ticket system. One pitchfork jab per man, woman, or child.

Washington (CNN) — Can the man who President Obama has tapped to formulate a long-term Gulf Coast restoration plan work only part-time on such a monumental effort?

Some environmental groups say no way and are suggesting that Ray Mabus should give up his post of Navy secretary to focus on the Gulf full-time.

The criticism comes after White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Mabus, a former governor of Mississippi, will be splitting his time between the two jobs.

What I would like to know is why they didn’t start to have some kind of plan in case this oil spill happened. Just now they are trying to do thing about it and don’t know what to do. With all the money they make you would think they should have tried to do all the thing they are doing now.

Washington (CNN) — Eight weeks after an explosion uncorked a massive oil spill into the Gulf, BP still does not know whether its efforts to stanch the flow will soon succeed, its CEO will testify Thursday.

“We cannot guarantee the outcome of these operations, but we are working around the clock with the best experts from government and industry,” Tony Hayward says in prepared testimony to be delivered before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

WASHINGTON – Seizing on a disastrous oil spill to advance a cause, President Barack Obama on Wednesday called on Congress to roll back billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil and pass a clean-energy bill that he says would help the nation end its dependence on fossil fuels.

Obama predicted that he would find the political support for legislation that would dramatically alter the way Americans fuel their homes and cars, including placing a price on carbon pollution, even though such legislation is politically divisive and remains bogged in the Senate.

Washington (CNN) — President Obama is applying the brakes, at least temporarily, to expansion of offshore oil drilling.

Obama is delaying oil exploration off the coast of Alaska, canceling the sale of a lease to drill off Virginia and extending the moratorium on permits to drill any new deepwater wells for six months, a White House official said Thursday.

Obama’s announcements Thursday come in response to a deadly explosion on a Gulf of Mexico oil rig — an accident that has triggered a devastating oil spill.