Energy and environmental issues have always carried heavy economic, ideological and regional baggage. Pursuing such a debate in a time of economic stress and rising energy prices is even more difficult, and prospects are dim for any major legislation in the next two years.

The administration’s new strategy grew from the failure of legislation to address global warming through a market-based cap-and-trade system, an approach Mr. Obama had strongly endorsed in his campaign and in his first year in office.

A comprehensive bill passed the House in 2009 but died in the Senate the next year, a victim of united Republican opposition, uncertainty about the economy, bad blood from the health care debate and unease generated by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The Obama White House ceded defeat on climate change midyear without a full-fledged battle.

“In the last Congress, the focus was on trying to do something on climate change, and after the cap-and-trade bill passed the House, there was some expectation we would follow in the Senate,” said Senator Jeff Bingaman, the New Mexico Democrat who leads the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “It was clear to some of us early on that the votes weren’t there to do that.”

Now, Mr. Bingaman said, the administration’s challenge is to protect the regulatory authority it does have to act on greenhouse gases by stopping the Republican anti-E.P.A. steamroller. “I think the votes are there to uphold a presidential veto, if it comes to that,” Mr. Bingaman said. “But I’m not certain.”

After the collapse of climate legislation and the Republican surge last November, Mr. Obama pivoted, declaring in his State of the Union address in January that he would try to move the country away from dependence on dirty fuels over the next 25 years through a shift to cleaner sources of energy.

It is an ambitious goal, but to date there are only piecemeal programs in place to achieve it, many of them in development at the Department of Energy. The president has not proposed legislation to make his vision a reality.