In his State of the Union address last week, President Obama called for finding ways to have 80 percent of American energy come from renewable sources by 2035. Following the speech, the White House encouraged the development of green technologies to create green jobs. While many have been reluctant to embrace nuclear energy and natural gas as potential sources of cleaner energy, the president offered both as new sources to be tapped.

Supporters hope that including nuclear energy, clean coal and natural gas will help the plan attract bipartisan support. The administration also has urged Congress to pass legislation to implement the clean energy standard. Opponents, however, are drawing a comparison to the controversial cap-and-trade legislation, which passed the House but never passed the Senate in the previous Congress. Republican opponents believe the plan would raise energy costs and hurt job creation.

Representative Fred Upton (R-MI) has said a nationwide plan would be unnecessary, because many states have already implemented these standards. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, also stated that the increased green energy standard could raise energy costs. Supporters of the measures, meanwhile, argue that if the country does not encourage the development of green technologies, other nations will, leaving the United States behind.

In related news, the White House is set to kickoff a new campaign called "Startup America" that aims to foster innovation and job creation in high-tech fields. A number of companies, including IBM, HP and Intel Capital, have already pledged hundreds of millions of dollars towards programs aimed at promoting new investment in the United States, encouraging American entrepreneurship and educating small businesses on growth strategies. Facebook is also taking part by hosting 12 "Startup Days" throughout the year to help businesses take better advantage of Facebook to help their businesses innovate and grow. Steve Case, one of AOL's co-founders, will lead the "Startup America" campaign.

Senate Leaders Agree to Rule Changes

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) have agreed to a bipartisan proposal that represents the greatest changes to Senate rules in 35 years. The most important change: Senate confirmation would not longer be required for about one-third of the more than 1,200 positions within the federal government that currently require confirmation. Judicial nominees, however, would not be among the exempted positions.

As of the end of the 111th Congress, 25 nominees had cleared the required Senate committees, but they had not been approved by the full Senate. Once that Congress ended, the nominations were sent back to the president. Qualified nominees can take months, even years, to receive Senate confirmation due to the large number of positions that require Senate approval. Partisan gamesmanship can also slow down the confirmation process for qualified nominees. Senators Schumer and Alexander will decide together which positions would no longer require approval.

Another big change: the end of secret holds. Until now, a senator could anonymously slow action on a bill by enacting a hold. Secret holds often made it difficult for the legislation's supporters to foster a compromise with those who disagreed with the bill.

In addition, senators will no longer be able to require that amendments to legislation be read in their entirety on the Senate floor. This stalling tactic has frustrated progress in the past while those opposed to a bill under debate could offer up numerous amendments of limited relevance.

The filibuster, however, would be left untouched. Legislation that is being filibustered requires 60 votes to end debate or to proceed to consider a bill. While Democrats believed the filibuster was the strongest stalling tactic of all in the Senate, which helped to ensure that cap-and-trade legislation did not pass the upper chamber, Republicans contend that the filibuster is necessary to protect the minority party's rights in the Senate.

Reid and McConnell have come to a gentleman's agreement that McConnell will limit the "use [of] a tactic that forces Reid to hold a vote to break a filibuster on a motion to consider a bill," according to the Washington Post. In exchange, Reid will allow Republican Senators greater freedom to offer amendments to legislation.