The Energy Debate -- Where Do We Go From Here?

The energy industry is one of the most sophisticated, heavily capitalized, technologically advanced in human history. Yet it continues to be confounded and challenged by events that combine natural disasters, man-made disasters, brutal partisan and regional politics, overall economic conditions and international disputes. Never have the "facts of life" for the industry hit home with greater velocity and impact than in the past year. Reeling from an unprecedented economic downturn and financial chaos, wars in the Mideast, a Gulf oil spill, and the Fukushima crisis, the energy industry is the very center of turmoil in the economic and political arenas in the United States and around most of the world. And this is just over the course of a single year.