Rep. Virginia Foxx slams the energy bill, calling it “a slap in the face to the state of North Carolina,” adding it would “lock North Carolina out of a share of the $2.6 trillion in tax revenue from new drilling right off our shores. What a sham.”

With the energy bill in mind, two stories from England are worth mentioning. A BBC story highlights a recently-issued report saying Britain faces prolonged power cuts as nuclear and coal power plants continued to be decommissioned. Ian Fells, the report’s author, says wind and solar simply won’t make up the gap:

“We have reached the stage where there is tremendous emphasis on renewable energy, and rightly so because renewables need to be an important part of the energy mix.

“But it is totally failing to meet the targets that were set.

“The UK is supposed to generate 10% of its electricity [from renewable sources] by 2010, yet it will be about 6%.

“It is more worrying that we have signed up to the European energy plan, which is 20% renewable energy by 2020 – that implies about 40% renewable electricity.

Meanwhile, Britain’s Ministry of Defence says offshore wind farms are a threat to national security.