In early 2010, the competitive grant application was made available to Michigan non-entitlement communities, for up to $50,000 toward implementation of energy reducing systems. Funding for these “Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants” were made available through federal stimulus funds handed to the State of Michigan, and awarded by the state's Bureau of Energy Systems, a division of the Department of Energy, Labor, and Economic Growth (DELEG). Around 125 total grants would be awarded, with twelve of those granted to U.P. towns.

China's President Hu has left the country. And some would argue that he has taken American jobs with him.

The question then is how to develop the policies to build out this country's manufacturing base and especially the one centered on renewable energy. Activists and their supporters in Congress say that more government involvement is necessary, which includes not just favorable environmental laws but also lucrative tax breaks. Not so, say free marketers, who maintain that that the United States should help fund research and development but that international markets will determine where such products are made.

"As long as solar panels are getting cheaper, we shouldn't worry about where they are being produced," writes Edward Glaeser, an economics professor at Harvard, in the New York Times. "We should continue financing research  ... but we shouldn't pretend that cheaper solar energy will end up employing millions of our less-skilled citizens."

The United States has ratified its treaty with Russia that limits the number of warheads pointing at each other. Now, the two are shifting their attention to an agreement focused on the civilian use of nuclear energy -- or the development of nuclear power.

The so-called U.S.-Russia123 Agreement also beefs up existing nuclear non-proliferation efforts. But it adds to that framework by laying the foundation so that the two can share nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. The cornerstones of the deal done earlier this month: To provide incentives to other nations to not acquire sensitive uranium enrichment technologies that could be used to build weapons and to allow for the transfer of technology, material and equipment to increase nuclear power production.

An emerging group of Republican leaders in Congress are putting together the elements of a new energy plan to help define a new national energy policy.

Rep. Devin Nunes is emerging as one of the key architects of new Republican thinking on energy. His energy plan is getting attention, having been profiled in various national media outlets. With Washington in gridlock on energy, as on many other issues, the Obama administration and Democrats are waiting for the Republican positions to clarify so negotiations may begin, Nunes will speak about the Republican energy principles in a keynote address at the EnergyBiz Leadership Forum in Washington, Feb. 28 - March 1. He recently outlined his approach to energy in a commentary written for the current issue of EnergyBiz magazine. An edited version follows:

If it is happening in China, it is being felt around the world. That's the unstated theme of the summit now occurring between President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, whose discussion will undoubtedly affect how American companies do business with the Asian nation and particularly in the area of energy.

The economic growth rate of 10 percent a year is exceeding China's own hopes. But power production there can't keep pace. It needs foreign assistance, although U.S. enterprises are complaining that they not necessarily getting a fair shake there. Meanwhile, some union organizations are protesting that the overt favoritism and artificially low currency rates are promoting their products and services and hurting jobs in this country.

With the Obama administration focused on economic health and investment in clean technology, drilling in the Arctic has gotten the cold shoulder. It has become even truer in the aftermath of the BP oil spill. At a time of divided government, though, the area might become a place for compromise. But don't bet on it.

America is up for the challenge of leading the world in energy technology, says a leading expert in business and energy innovation. Nicholas M. Donofrio, a senior fellow at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, says that the United States will be able to assert its technological leadership developing the next generation of safe, reliable nuclear power plants.

Nuclear power plant construction is undergoing a global resurgence, particularly in China. A program of federal loan guarantees is intended to spur a nuclear renaissance in America. But many industry experts say that for nuclear to take off a business case must be made for it free of government supports.

Luring capital is no small task. As such, power companies have to consider all options -- including those beyond the traditional debt and equity markets. Private equity firms are good prospects: They have the cash and they seek productive assets. Utilities, meantime, are short generation and transmission and need solid partners. The two have already met and time has shown they work well together.

Duke Energy is vowing to buy Progress Energy in what would become the largest utility in the country. But would the mega-merger create excessive market power? Regulators will decide.

It's not a surprise that two contiguous power companies would want to unite. Any company with a solid financial and pot of cash has its eye on others. Simply, merging could potentially improve earnings and thereby help to bankroll future projects. The secret, though, is to make buys that are reasonably priced and that are synergistic - all to gain size and scope while increasing cost savings.

The Middle East is long synonymous with oil production. But the region will soon have a new power broker and one that specializes in finding natural gas: Israel.

Last month, Texas-based Noble Energy and its Israeli partners discovered the world's largest natural gas deposit in 10 years that is roughly 80 miles off the shores of Haifa, Israel. Leviathan, as it known and which is said to 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, could at least allow the small nation to replace much of its oil-and- coal- based electric generation with that of the cleaner burning natural gas.