More talk than progress in U.S. energy policy

The federal government also started doling out funds from a program created in 2007 to develop fuel-efficient cars.

Electric sports car manufacturer Tesla Motors, based in San Carlos, won $465 million in federal loans to open two manufacturing plants in California: one will build power trains in Palo Alto, the other will assemble the company's new $57,000 Model S sedan in Southern California. Critics complained that the government shouldn't fund cars most people can't afford.

The fate of climate change legislation, meanwhile, remains undecided.

Although it took a back seat to the administration's top domestic priority, health care reform, work continued in the Senate. Lobbyists from companies for and against the legislation constantly ramped up their efforts. The oil industry helped coordinate rallies, designed to look like grassroots gatherings, against the bills.

The issue caused a messy rift within the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with companies such as Apple Inc. and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. that support the legislation leaving the group.

A significant effect

The ultimate passage or defeat of climate change legislation will have a significant effect on the fortunes of fossil fuel companies, renewable power developers, electric carmakers and biofuel designers.

So would moves by the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant.

"Everything in the long term depends on getting a climate bill through," said Daniel Kammen, a professor in the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley. "Until then, the best grade you can give is incomplete. There's been more progress than a lot of people expected.