The Center for Public Integrity

Republicans are calling on Congressional investigators to expand their probe of the Obama Administration’s “green energy” loan program to include Fisker, the start-up electric car company that received more than $500 million in federal support but is assembling its high-end sports sedan in Finland.

“We need to extend the investigation,” Rep. Tim Murphy, a Pennsylvania Republican who sits on the committee that has been investigating the government’s loan program, told ABC News in an interview for "World News" and "Nightline". “If they couldn’t find someone to build the car in the U.S., then don’t do it. Find another way. Find something else.”

Fisker is one of two start-up electric car companies that combined have been offered $1 billion in federal loans through an Energy Department program meant to create jobs and improve air quality through the fledgling alternative energy industry. The loan program has faced intense scrutiny from Congress since the first loan recipient, the solar manufacturing firm Solyndra, declared bankruptcy last month.

A House Energy and Commerce Committee panel has held a series of hearings and released thousands of pages of documents subpoenaed from the Obama administration that showed there were deep divisions about the wisdom of loaning Solyndra $535 million. ABC News reported Thursday that there are now emerging questions about the progress of Fisker Automotive, which has experienced delays with the production of its $97,000 hybrid electric sports sedan. The company has yet to make public even a picture of its next car — a more affordable family car that is supposed to be manufactured in Delaware.

Actresses Darryl Hannah and Margot Kidder and hundreds of less well-known activists are ending a two-week civil disobedience campaign focused on preventing Obama administration approval of a pipeline to ferry oil extracted from Canadian tar sands to U.S. refineries. They say it threatens forests, water supplies, and will radically worsen global warming.

But climate scientists and oil industry analysts say more is at stake than the fate of the so-called Keystone XL project. It is among a handful of energy projects in North America whose approval could boost investment and create momentum for unconventional sources of fossil fuels. Many scientists believe increased use of such dirtier energy could make it harder to avert a climate crisis.

While protestors want White House officials and the public to notice, investors already are watching developments closely – and the pipeline’s builder, whose chief lobbyist has deep connections in Washington, is spending heavily to influence the outcome. To Wall Street, approval of extending the pipeline to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico would be more than symbolic.

“It could give a signal that the U.S. isn’t necessarily going to step up regulations” on new and dirtier forms of fossil fuels, said Jacob Correll, a commodities analyst at Summit Energy, a consulting firm. “It might give investors more comfort that it’s going to be a country that’s more conducive to continuing these drilling investments going forward.”