Rick Wagoner chairman of General Motors Corp. will make the case for up to $50 billion in federal loans to the auto industry at a U.S. Senate energy summit. The summit will be on September 12 and was pushed by a bipartisan group of senators hoping to break a logjam around energy in Congress. The Democrats and Republican Party have hammered each other over who’s to blame for rising energy prices and what should be done to relieve them.

Group of senators unveiled an energy bill in July that included $7.5 billion in loans for automakers and parts suppliers to retool. Six other senators have signed on as supporters and Senate leaders approved the idea of an energy summit.

The maker of automotive parts and building climate-control system, Johnson Controls Inc. said it will pare production and cut an unspecified number of jobs and resulting in costs of as much as $500 million. Johnson Control Inc. also said it expects to complete most of the cost-reduction effort by early 2010.

The Chrysler LLC has been demonstrating plug-in hybrid prototypes to some dealers that are further developed than those previously shown by the automaker. The vehicles are being developed by Chrysler’s Envi unit and which the automaker created last year to create electric vehicles and other advanced propulsion technologies, said Chrysler Vice Chairman and President Jim Press.

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