Reid's energy summit kicks off Monday in Las Vegas

A two-day conference on creating clean energy technology -- co-hosted by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Searchlight) -- will bring prominent politicians from around the country to Las Vegas, beginning Monday.

The National Clean Energy Summit will feature presentations from former president Bill Clinton, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and billionaire political advocate T. Boone Pickens.

The summit, scheduled to be held at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, begins with a keynote speech from Clinton Monday afternoon and continues with a series of panels Tuesday.

Western governors, including Arizona's Janet Napolitano (D), Colorado's Bill Ritter (D) and Utah's Jon Huntsman (R), are on the list of panelists, as is state Sen. Dina Titus (D-Henderson), who is challenging for U.S. Rep. Jon Porter's (R-Henderson) seat in Congress.

Reid, who along with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, sets the agenda for the Democrats in Congress, helped organize the event in his home state. He said he hopes the event will lead to progress towards a new energy agenda heading into the November elections.

“I am hopeful that this event will result in some consensus ideas and principles that participants can carry to the parties’ political conventions and on into the next Administration," Reid said in a statement on his web site.

"As the Majority Leader, clean energy -- and Nevada’s central role in this revolution -- will be a top legislative priority of mine for the next Congress," Reid said.

Pelosi has become the target of criticism from congressional Republicans over her refusal to allow a vote on a bill seeing to expand offshore oil drilling. Over the weekend, however, Pelosi released her own proposal, which would allow some expanded drilling in some locations.