DOE

Folding it into the Department of Energy:

A bill introduced Thursday by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C) would combine the DOE and the EPA into a new agency called the Department of Energy and Environment. The effort may also be an attempt by the GOP to rein in the EPA, which many Republicans accuse of pursuing too many costly environmental rules under the Obama administration.

Aside from the fact this would draw a huge amount of resources away from our environmental protectors (ergo massive staff reductions), the potential conflicts of interest are staggering. The DOE isn't just funded by taxpayers; money pours in from private industry, as well:

At first glance, it doesn't appear to be much different from Bush the Younger's:

With the climate legislation stalled in Congress, however, many of Obama's allies find themselves divided by the president's push for new offshore drilling, his budget's tripling of loan guarantees for nuclear power plants, and his repeated use of the phrase "clean coal," which the coal industry uses as shorthand for still unproven and uneconomic technologies that could limit carbon-dioxide emissions from coal-burning power plants.