Majority Leader Reid pushes Administration for Recess Appts, Energy Budget Dissected in CQ, Apples Plans Huge Solar Facility

With Senate Republicans bottling up scores of President Obama's nominees for federal office, including some in the Energy Department, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., says he may ask the president to simply use his recess power to appoint all of them. The DOE slots are held up in a dispute between Rand Paul, R-Ky., and the Energy Department over enriching uranium at a Paducah, Ky., facility that he says is in danger of losing 1,200 jobs. Reid wants the Senate to move the nominees soon. 

Geof Koss in CQ Weekly looks at how President Obama's 2013 budget request aims for bigger investments in energy conservation and efficiency programs, to try to get the country saving more and wasting less of the coal, nuclear, natural gas and alternative-power sources it already taps. Energy Secretary Steven Chu says this is "in the sweet spot of how we can help the U.S. economy create jobs and make us much more competitive," without always trying to just build more power plants and power lines. While much of the budget saw cuts or small gains, Obama proposed a 3.2 percent overall hike for the DOE. 

Apple plans to build to America's largest privately owned solar facility, according to the company's 2012 facilities report.  Improvements to the massive data center in Maiden, N.C., which was commissioned by Apple in 2011, will include the 100 acre solar farm, green building design and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.