ASP Policy Analyst Nick Cunningham wrote an oped for AOL Energy, arguing that several other federal agencies have more influence over the direction of U.S. energy policy than the Department of Energy. Some of the critical energy choices facing the Obama administration over the next several years will fall to the Departments of the Interior, State, Defense, as well as the EPA. From the article:

One of these choices is how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the electricity sector, which will depend on rulemaking from the EPA. If Lisa Jackson’s successor at EPA decides to follow through on tougher carbon limits from existing power plants, building onlast year’s rule for new power plants, it will accelerate the demise of the coal industry that is already underway.

The Department of Interior is central to another critical energy choice over the next several years: how to manage America’s newfound fossil fuel abundance. The US is blessed with abundant resources of oil and natural gas, and advances in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have opened up vast new reserves. Oil production is at its highest level in 20 years and America is awash in natural gas.

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