A Senate Appropriations subcommittee will grill Federal Trade Commission members this week about their oversight of energy markets, a hearing that comes as record gasoline prices are playing a starring role in political and legislative debates.

The chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee said he plans to provide "robust funding" for the Clean Coal Power Initiative, even as the fate of FutureGen remains unknown.

Two powerful Senate Democrats are pressing for the establishment of a $250 million program that would fund research to help drinking water utilities adapt to the effects of climate change.

The mystery of what really led to the unraveling of the Energy Department's FutureGen project may be unraveled at a Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee hearing Thursday.

The Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee will hold a field hearing in Colorado today to discuss the mountain pine beetle infestation that has laid waste to millions of acres of trees across the West and how federal resources are being devoted to fight the epidemic.

The Energy Department's proposed 7 percent cut for nuclear nonproliferation programs in fiscal 2009 does not match the "unbelievable danger" posed by the threat of rogue nations or terrorists acquiring nuclear material, the chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee said yesterday.

A Senate Appropriations subcommittee will meet this week to discuss the 2009 budget request for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the agency that oversees more than 15,000 consumer products.