Friday’s big story: The State Department will host a Washington, D.C., hearing on the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, a project that’s increasingly the focal point of wider battles over energy and climate change.

Industry and environmental groups will be holding dueling Friday morning press conferences ahead of the hearing on TransCanada Corp.’s plan to build a 1,700-mile pipeline to bring crude from Alberta’s oil sands projects to Gulf Coast refineries.

The State Department is leading the Obama administration’s review of the $7 billion project, and a decision on whether to grant a permit is expected by the end of the year. 

The hearing — which follows similar events in states along the pipeline route — will be at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center beginning at 10 a.m., and will be webcast here.

Major business groups including the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Petroleum Institute are lobbying for the project, calling it a way to boost U.S. energy security and create jobs.

Green groups – who allege State’s review is tilted toward TransCanada – oppose the pipeline due to greenhouse gas emissions from oil sands projects, and the prospect of pipeline spills that could contaminate groundwater. Some environmentalists say the Obama administration decision will be a referendum on the president’s commitment to battling climate change.

Upton, Stearns: Silver resignation ‘does not solve the problem’: Top Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee vowed to continue their investigation of the Solyndra loan guarantee Thursday after a top DOE official announced his resignation.

Jonathan Silver, the executive director of the loan guarantee program, will resign effective Friday. Silver told Energy Secretary Steven Chu in July that he would resign when the renewable loan guarantee program expired. The program ended Sept. 30.

Here’s Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the chairman of the committee’s investigative panel:

“Mr. Silver’s resignation does not solve the problem. We are in the midst of the Solyndra investigation and just days removed from Mr. Silver’s mad rush to finalize the last $4.7 billion in loans before the statutory deadline. Just this past Monday, the President declared the loan guarantee program sound and said that it was to be expected that one company like Solyndra could fail.”

House GOP wants Solyndra probe to reach Obama’s BlackBerry: House Republicans probing federal financing for the bankrupt solar panel company Solyndra want access to President Obama’s BlackBerry messages.

Top GOP members of the Energy and Commerce Committee wrote to White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler on Wednesday seeking “all communications” among White House staff and officials relating to the loan guarantee between Jan. 20, 2009, and the present.

Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who heads the committee’s investigation’s panel, said the request covers the president’s BlackBerry messages, which Stearns cast a groundbreaking inquiry. 

“It has never occurred in this country to ask for the president’s personal BlackBerry emails, so I don’t know how that technically works,” Stearns told reporters in the Capitol Thursday.

“If there is nothing on his BlackBerry that is fine, but if there is something on his BlackBerry, I would assume that [the request] would include that,” he added.

Obama is the first BlackBerry-wielding sitting president, and Stearns said the request is groundbreaking. “From an attorney’s standpoint, how does that work when you request emails that the president did on his BlackBerry,” Stearns said.

A Democrat close to the Obama administration cast it in a less charitable light. 

“It’s an absurd request. They are wasting time, energy and tax payer dollars on a political fishing expedition. This is the type of overreach which calls into question their entire oversight effort,” the Democrat said.

Issa says staff aiding Solyndra probe: House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Thursday that his staff is working with the Energy and Commerce Committee, which is conducting the main GOP probe into the failed solar company Solyndra.

“My investigators work for all committees,” Issa told reporters in the Capitol Thursday. “So to the extent that Mr. Stearns committee needs assistance, our investigators, we cooperate, we work, there is a lot of that that goes on behind the scenes.”

Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) heads the Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigations panel. Asked if his investigators have been working with Energy and Commerce, Issa replied: “I believe they have. They have been sharing information back and forth regularly.”

Issa has begun a separate probe that looks more generally at federal loan support to private companies.

Exxon CEO: Natural-gas foes ‘manufacturing fear’: ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, whose company is investing heavily in U.S. natural-gas production, went on the offensive Thursday against opponents of the controversial drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing.

“A lot of the opposition around shale gas today and the hydraulic fracturing story is all manufactured fear. People have manufactured this fear,” Tillerson said, alleging that fracturing doesn’t present public health risks.

Tillerson spoke at the Washington Ideas Festival held by The Atlantic and the Aspen Institute. 

His criticism is part of a high-stakes battle over the drilling method that’s enabling a boom in production of natural-gas from shale formations, but bringing fears of groundwater contamination alongside it.

Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” involves high-pressure injections of water, chemicals and sand into rock formations, which open up cracks that enable trapped gas to flow.

Environmentalists say there are many cases of water contamination in which fracking is at least the prime suspect, and the Environmental Working Group recently released a report showing that in 1987, EPA documented a case of fracking fluids contaminating well water in West Virginia. 

EPA is currently conducting a major study of fracking.

Rep. Landry, Bromwich to meet Oct. 11: Rep. Jeff Landry (R-La.) will meet with Interior offshore drilling chief Michael Bromwich and other officials Oct. 11 in New Orleans to discuss offshore permitting.

The meeting comes after Bromwich initially canceled a staff-level meeting with Landry when the lawmaker accused Interior Department personnel of behaving “like the Gestapo.”

Final vote on bill delaying EPA boiler rules next week: House Republicans rejected five amendments sponsored by Democrats to a bill aimed at delaying Environmental Protection Agency boiler regulations Thursday. But a final vote on the bill is not expected until next week.

The bill is expected to easily pass, like similar legislation approved by the House Thursday that would delay EPA cement rules.

Sen. Boxer unveils report to counter GOP attacks on EPA: Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) released a report Thursday aimed at combating Republican criticism of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Here’s the key takeaway from the report: “Our landmark environmental laws are critical to a stronger, healthier and more productive workforce — they are integral to our quality of life and support a strong economy. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) important role was clear at its creation and is just as vital today.”

House E&C releases progress report: House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) released a report Thursday outlining his panel’s major accomplishments during the last nine months.

“Time and again, we advanced bills through this committee and the full House that will protect jobs needlessly put at risk and help to create new ones,” Upton said in a statement on the report. “We exercised rigorous oversight to root out waste, fraud, and abuse and ensure government is held accountable.”

Green group endorses Rep. Inslee for Washington governor: The League of Conservation Voters endorsed Rep Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) in his push to become the next governor of Washington. Here’s a statement from LCV President Gene Karpinski:

"The states have always been the laboratories of democracy and clean energy is no exception. We know that Congressman Inslee has seen firsthand how many politicians in Washington would rather block job-creating, clean energy legislation than work to build a thriving new energy economy. We’re endorsing Congressman Inslee for governor because we know that he’ll work to ensure Washington State is a clean energy leader and an example of what our national economy really needs."