The Biden administration on Nov. 23 said 50 million barrels of oil will be released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a bid to drive down fuel prices.

The House on Nov. 19 passed a 10-year, $1.75-trillion budget bill that would fund Biden administration climate, health, education and housing programs, including $555 billion in tax changes and spending aimed at lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

Electric industry groups hailed the newly passed $1-trillion infrastructure legislation, pointing to billions of dollars in funding to upgrade the grid, electrify transportation and develop technologies for decarbonizing the electric power system.

Industry groups reacted cautiously to the Environmental Protection Agency's sweeping proposal to limit methane emissions from new and existing oil and natural gas facilities.

President Joe Biden on Oct. 28 announced a $1.75-trillion "framework" for a 10-year budget bill that includes $555 billion for energy tax credits, supply chain development, "resilience" and federal procurement.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Oct. 21 said lawmakers are making progress toward agreement on a 10-year budget bill to fund President Joe Biden's climate, health and education proposals.

The Interior Department plans to sell seven offshore wind leases by 2025, including two off the West Coast, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said Oct. 13.

President Joe Biden this week said the sweeping 10-year budget bill funding his climate, health and education proposals would be smaller than the initially proposed amount of $3.5 trillion.

The House delayed a vote on the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure package that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had planned for Sept. 30.

President Joe Biden on Sept. 22 met with congressional Democrats at the White House as a Sept. 27 House vote looms on the Senate-passed infrastructure package and differences remain unresolved among Democrats over the level and scope of proposed spending on multitrillion-dollar budget reconc…

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Sept. 14 reported out legislation that would establish the Clean Electricity Performance Program to prod utilities to increase the amount of low- and zero-carbon generating resources in their portfolios.

Congressional committees worked this week to flesh out a $3.5-trillion, 10-year budget bill to advance the Biden administration's climate, health and education priorities.

Regulations covering the reach of the Clean Water Act reverted to a decades-old version of the rules Aug. 30 when a federal court in Arizona threw out the 2020 "Waters of the U.S." rule adopted by the Trump administration.

Congressional Democrats will spend the next several weeks putting together legislation to put meat on the bones of the $3.5-trillion budget resolution the House narrowly approved Aug. 24 to boost spending on climate and other Biden administration priorities.

The Department of Energy on Aug. 18 proposed unwinding a Trump administration rule to create separate product classes for noncondensing furnaces and commercial water heaters, opening the door to tighter efficiency standards.

The Senate on Aug. 11 passed a $3.5-trillion budget resolution that paves the way for legislation including a "clean-electricity payment program" and incentives for zero-carbon energy, electric vehicles, home electrification and weatherization.

Half of the new vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2030 should be zero-emission, according to a goal set in an executive order President Joe Biden signed Aug. 5.

A proposed bipartisan infrastructure package advanced in the Senate following July 28 passage of a procedural motion on a 67-32 vote.

President Joe Biden's nominee to direct the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning, faces what is likely to be a narrow confirmation vote after a July 22 tie vote at a contentious session of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on July 15 unanimously opened a rulemaking that could lead to significant reforms in transmission planning, cost allocations and generator interconnection processes.

The Department of Energy on July 7 formally proposed additional changes to a 2020 "process rule" for setting equipment efficiency standards that would drop what DOE called "extra procedural steps" not required by the 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act.

Eight Western governors, joined by the CEOs of the Bonneville Power Administration, Portland General Electric and Edison International, on June 30 met virtually with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Cabinet secretaries on preparedness for the wildfire season, which the W…

President Joe Biden and a bipartisan group of senators reached agreement June 24 on the outlines of infrastructure legislation that includes $73 billion for grid upgrades and $7.5 billion for electric-vehicle charging stations.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners on June 17 announced formation of a joint task force to examine planning and financing for transmission projects, barriers to development, voluntary state coordination of regional transm…

A bipartisan group of 10 senators on June 10 announced agreement on a "compromise framework" for legislation to fund infrastructure and "energy technologies."

Nine former members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on June 2 called on FERC to expand organized wholesale power markets to all regions of the U.S.

Prospects for wind development off California's coast advanced May 25 following the Biden administration's announcement of an agreement between the Interior and Defense departments and Gov. Gavin Newsom's identification of two "potential wind energy areas" off the state's Central and North coasts.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on May 19 suggested that mandatory pipeline cybersecurity standards might be necessary, following a ransomware attack that resulted in a nearly weeklong shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline system delivering petroleum products to the South and East Coast.

President Joe Biden on May 12 signed an executive order to use procurement for strengthening cybersecurity, setting baseline requirements for software sold to the federal government.

The Department of the Interior on May 6 proposed revoking a Trump administration rule that narrowed the scope of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

The Senate on April 28 threw out the Environmental Protection Agency's 2020 rule that eliminated methane emissions limits on new and modified upstream oil and natural gas facilities.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on April 22 proposed a rule to restore California's authority to adopt its own tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions standards and zero-emission vehicle mandates.

President Joe Biden on April 12 said he is willing to negotiate the scope and funding of infrastructure legislation, just before he met with a bipartisan delegation of lawmakers at the White House.

President Joe Biden proposed spending increases of more than $14 billion for climate change-related projects in a $1.52-trillion fiscal year 2022 discretionary budget request he sent to Congress on April 9.

President Joe Biden's $2-trillion-plus infrastructure package is headed for Congress, where battles over its scope and the tax increases proposed to pay for it are expected to dominate the debate.

Oil and natural gas industry officials at the Department of the Interior's March 25 forum on leasing policy warned against making permanent the leasing freeze on federal lands and waters, while energy policy specialists backed increases in rents and other leasing-related charges.

Deb Haaland took office as secretary of the Interior on March 16, following the Senate's vote to confirm her as the first Native American to hold a Cabinet position.

President Joe Biden on March 11 signed into law a $1.9-trillion pandemic relief bill, HR 1319, that includes $4.5 billion for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on March 4 reported out Deb Haaland's nomination to be secretary of the Department of the Interior on a nearly party-line vote of 11-9, including crucial support from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), the committee's chairman.

Jennifer Granholm was sworn in as secretary of energy Feb. 25 after the Senate confirmed her nomination earlier in the day.

The Bureau of Land Management on Feb. 17 moved to block the Trump administration's proposed amendments aimed at boosting development on federal lands in the California desert.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Feb. 9 reported out the nomination of Michael Regan for Environmental Protection Agency administrator.

A group of automakers, including Toyota and Fiat Chrysler, on Feb. 2 announced withdrawal of their intervention in litigation to support the Trump administration's stance on motor vehicle tailpipe emissions standards, voicing support for the Biden administration's "goals to achieve year-over…

President Joe Biden on Jan. 27 signed a sweeping "whole-of-government" order to integrate greenhouse gas emissions reduction and climate adaptation into the administration's domestic, foreign and security policies.

President Joe Biden on Jan. 20 put the wheels in motion to reverse Trump administration energy and climate policies, signing a sweeping order directing federal agencies to move ahead with tightening greenhouse gas emissions limits, strengthening efficiency standards, and unwinding policies t…

The $1.9-trillion pandemic relief proposal rolled out Jan. 14 by President-elect Joe Biden includes $5 billion to cover home energy and water costs and bill arrears for renters.

The Senate's changing hands following Democrats' twin victories in Georgia's Jan. 5 special election likely is a boost for President-elect Joe Biden's energy and climate agenda.

Extended tax incentives, technology research programs, and measures to speed deployment of efficiency, storage, nuclear and renewable resources are among the broad array of energy provisions included in the mammoth budget and pandemic relief package that Congress passed Dec. 21.

President-elect Joe Biden on Dec. 17 announced senior members of his incoming administration's "climate team," including former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm as his choice for secretary of energy and Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) for Interior secretary.