State of Play: The Obama administration will continue the sales pitch for its newly proposed budget plan Tuesday.

Jeffrey Zients, the acting head of the White House Office of Management and Budget, will appear before the Senate Budget Committee.

Interior Secretay Ken Salazar, meanwhile, will be in the political battleground state of Ohio Tuesday to visit energy-related manufacturing plants.

He’s making two stops that reflect the White House message that the administration backs both oil-and-gas development and expansion of renewable energy.

Energy Secretary Chu's announcement will spark more questions in Congress over government investments in energy projects.

President Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget request doubles down on renewable energy amid growing Republican attacks on the administration’s green agenda.

The budget request, which was sent to Congress Monday, increases investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency at the Department of Energy.

“In light of the tight discretionary spending caps, this increase in funding is significant and a testament to the importance of innovation and clean energy to the country’s economic future,” the budget request says.

President Obama’s new budget proposal calls for the repeal of billions of dollars in oil-and-gas industry tax breaks.

Senate Republicans want to add an amendment to the highway bill that would mandate construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

The Washington Post reports that the Obama administration has slowed review of key environmental regulations.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) criticized the Obama administration for it response to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, NBC reports.

Japan’s decision to become less reliant on nuclear power is causing a boost in natural gas in North America, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Eleven states sued the Obama administration Friday over delayed Environmental Protection Agency soot standards, The Associated Press reports.

Top Obama administration officials will appear before Congress this week to explain — and defend — the energy and environmental provisions in President Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget request.

Obama will deliver his budget request to Congress on Monday. Observers will be watching for the administration’s investments in green energy, oil-and-gas production and nuclear energy, among other things.

The budget request comes as Obama’s investments in green energy are coming under attack by Republicans in Congress, who cite the September collapse of California solar-panel-maker Solyndra, which received a $535 million loan guarantee from the administration in 2009.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu again warned Friday that more recipients of Energy Department green technology loan guarantees will likely collapse even as he touted the strength of the program overall.

The warning comes as many Republicans continue to assail the green-energy loan program as a risky use of taxpayer dollars.

“We have always known that there were inherent risks in backing innovative technologies at full commercial scale, and it is very likely that there will be other companies in the portfolio that won’t succeed,” Chu said in a statement Friday.

The independent review, which follows the Solyndra bankruptcy, recommends a series of steps aimed at better protecting the government’s investments.