to the nines [Race,to,the,Top]

  "Clean energy race" has become acatchphrase for journalists andbloggers to attract reader eyes.Googling that, one will beamazed by the number of recent headlineschurned out.
  American politicians and businessmenreportedly used the race analogy to persuadeCongress to pass climate and energy billsthat encourage the development of clean en-ergy.