Senate vote one short of passage of energy bill; judiciary committee votes for contempt charges against 2 Bush aides...

13 December :: Pro-industry forces in the US Senate have blocked the sweeping energy-policy reform bill that Democrats have touted as necessary for future economic and ecological wellbeing of the nation; "in order to bring the bill to a vote, Democrats were forced to drop a provision that required utilities to obtain at least 15% of their electricity from renewable resources, such as wind and solar power. These industries have now suffered another blow because the production tax credit for wind and the investment tax credit for solar, which both expire at the end of 2008, still don't have the funding to extend them"... US Senate judiciary committee imposes contempt citations on White House chief of staff Josh Bolton and fmr. Bush aide, Karl Rove, for refusing to cooperate with probe into firing of federal prosecutors, allegedly for political reasons; White House maintains the firings were performance-based and says Bush's aides are protected from being called to testify by the principle of 'executive privilege'; Sen. Arlen Specter, the committee's top Republican, was one of two Republicans to vote for contempt charges, saying the refusal to testify violates the Congressional subpoenas issued... A major prosecution of what the Justice Dept. has called "homegrown terrorism" has ended in mistrial, Washington Post reports "A federal jury deadlocked over charges that six men from a fringe religious group conspired to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and instigate a war against the United States", while another defendant was cleared of all charges; new trial to start 7 January 2008...