The commission – which Obama will create by executive order – is expected to explore needed safeguards for future offshore drilling.

An official with the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service – the agency that regulates offshore drilling – is apologizing for allowing some ill-considered frosting into a meeting.

Newsweek and some other outlets obtained an email from John Goll, manager of MMS’s Alaska region, that Goll sent Thursday to MMS employees nationwide. It followed a New York Times story that revealed a cake with the worlds “Drill, Baby, Drill,” was served at recent meeting in the Alaska office.

Here’s the email:

President Barack Obama will continue the White House emphasis on alternative energy and conservation next week with an appearance at a California solar panel maker that received the first Energy Department loan guarantee for advanced energy projects.

Obama on May 26 will visit and make remarks at Solyndra, Inc., which received a $535 million loan guarantee to expand manufacturing of photovoltaic panels.

The White House – which highlighted jobs created by the project in announcing the trip – said Obama’s speech at the plant will focus on the economy. The visit to the Fremont, Calif. Company will be part of a trip that includes campaigning on behalf of Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).

Democrats sought answers from other top Republicans Friday on whether they agree with Kentucky GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul that criticism of BP is "un-American."

Members of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) took to Twitter to ask Republican leaders and candidates (or at least their official accounts) whether they "agree with Rand Paul that the President is being too hard on BP?"

DNC National Press Secretary Hari Sevugan tweeted, for example:

@DavidVitter do you agree with Rand Paul that the President is being too hard on BP? http://bit.ly/drAAQi

While Republicans are unlikely to respond to the online interrogations, the line of question reflects a growing sense that Paul, who found himself in hot water on Wednesday, too, for suggesting that civil rights laws might have encroached too much on private business, is a growing liability for the GOP.

The Senate delegations of Maryland and New Jersey are putting new pressure on President Barack Obama to abandon the sale of oil-and-gas leases off Virginia’s coast, alleging it would interfere with Navy training.

“We are writing to urge you to abandon plans for any offshore oil and gas development within proposed Virginia Lease Sale 220 because, not only would it pose enormous environmental and economic risks to our states, but it would also jeopardize our military readiness in a time of war,” states a letter Thursday to Obama from Democratic Sens. Ben Cardin (Md.), Barbara Mikulski (Md.), Frank Lautenberg (N.J.) and Robert Menendez (N.J.).

The administration recently suspended planning for the lease sale — slated for the 2011-2012 time frame — as it reviews increased safeguards needed following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul of Kentucky – who is on the defensive over his views on civil rights – believes the tenor of White House pressure on oil giant BP is "un-American." My colleague Jordan Fabian has the details over in our Blog Briefing Room.

The president used a Rose Garden ceremony Friday to highlight new fuel efficiency standards and call for climate change legislation.

President Barack Obama will announce plans Friday to improve car and truck mileage and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The White House to expand auto mileage rules and include big trucks

President Barack Obama on Friday will sign a Presidential Memorandum “outlining the next steps in his vision for cleaner, more efficient vehicles,” the White House said Thursday evening.

The order is expected to require further boosts in car and light truck mileage after the 2016 model year, when a 35.5 miles-per-gallon average will be in effect, the Associated Press reports.

The 2012-2016 standards were finalized earlier this year under a first-time joint rulemaking between the Transportation Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that addresses both efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions.

Obama is also “asking federal agencies to extend a national fuel-efficiency program to big rig and work trucks for the first time, beginning in 2014,” AP reports.