As for natural gas, why should taxpayers foot the bill to help the industry be more responsible? If gas companies don't adopt more responsible production practices voluntarily, the government's job is not to write them a check; it's to implement regulations that protect the public.

For those of us concerned about the future of the U.S. in an era of global climate change and international competition over diminishing natural resources, the new report from the National Intelligence Council contains goods news and bad news.

Tax policies that encourage carbon emissions range from subsidies for oil companies to mortgage interest deductions for energy-wasting McMansions, but neither Romney nor Obama has addressed it head-on.

Stop treating support for renewable energy like tree hugging and begin treating it as a critical investment in national security.

The new, fiscally conservative Congress could do what it has committed itself to doing -- cutting wasteful spending -- by starting with arguably the most wasteful spending of all: corporate welfare checks for the highly profitable oil and coal industries.

Attacks by dirty energy are serious, coordinated, and are beginning to get traction in public opinion research. While clean energy has the facts on its side, it needs to capture peoples' imaginations, not just their intellects.

McCain and Obama are at polar opposites on the matter of energy; the issue of fossil / nuclear energy versus green energy could well be the uniquely different determining factor in November.