U.S. Energy Policy Caught in the Vise of Economics and Politics - NYTimes.com

The Republican nominee accused the president of picking a lot of losers with $90 billion worth of government largess for Solyndra, the California solar company, and other green enterprises.
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In a twist few would have predicted when Mr. Obama first entered the White House and much as it may dismay him, fossil fuels have eclipsed renewable energy and climate change in the national discussion — even as climate scientists warn that the droughts that scorch corn crops and the faster melting of Arctic ice and glaciers around the world are signs of things to come.

“Last time we were electing a president, it looked like we were running out of energy, and this time we’re debating how to use what now seems to be ample resources for decades to come,” said Daniel Yergin, the energy historian...Cheap natural gas fuels a bit more than 30 percent of American power production, up from just over 20 percent in 2008.

Doe: Fossil fuel experience expected in Romney nominee -- 10/23/2012 -- www.eenews.net

Whoever he picks, most agree that Romney almost certainly is not looking for someone in the mold of the wonky, cerebral Steven Chu, who has led the department through Obama's first term.

"I'd be greatly surprised if Romney starts digging through a long list of Nobel Prize winners to populate any Cabinet department," said Benjamin Cole, communications director for the Institute for Energy Research, an industry-backed think tank. "That hasn't worked out too well."

The Shale Revolution Is Revitalising The American Economy – And It’s Only The Beginning | GWPF

Carpe Diem: The shale boom is creating millions of shovel-ready jobs throughout the US economy, stimulating the economy with trillions of dollars of new investment, lowering energy costs for residential and industrial customers and generating billions of dollars of savings, making U.S. natural gas prices more affordable than anywhere else in the world and sparking a manufacturing renaissance, adding billions of dollars of revenues for federal and state governments, and creating thousands of new millionaires from the oil and gas royalties being paid out to farmers and landowners around the country. And the impact of the energy revolution is only beginning.

Food and Climate: A New Warning - NYTimes.com

The study found that rice yields would likely fall by a third by the end of the century