DIANE CARDWELL

Buoyed by low gas prices, Americans are largely eschewing electric cars in favor of lower-mileage trucks and SUVs. Yet the Obama administration has shown no signs of backing off its requirement that automakers nearly double the fuel economy of their vehicles by 2025.

Ever since the 1970s, when international oil boycotts threatened the U.S. economy and produced around-the-block waiting lines at gasoline stations, a ban on oil exports has been at the heart of national energy policy. Now, if a congressional deal holds up and President Barack Obama agrees as is expected, that policy is about to be reversed.

Efforts to capture the wind for electricity are going higher as turbines get taller. In perhaps the most extreme example, a startup is planning its first commercial pilot for a tethered airborne wind turbine in Alaska.