Reviewing The Year's Top Energy Stories

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

November 28, 2011 | 4:10 PM

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President Obama, at the White House

Trying to bone up on federal energy regulation? AOL Energy’s “Politics Year In Review” article is a good place to start.
The post reviews this year’s major Washington, DC energy stories, including the Solyndra bankruptcy and Keystone XL Pipeline debate.

Energy politics have been more partisan than ever this year.
Republicans have been consistently supporting incumbent fossil fuel electricity generators–nuclear, coal and natural gas–while Democrats have been vocally supporting emissions regulations, renewables loan guarantees and tax incentives as well as increased taxes on oil and gas companies.
President Obama has been treading cautiously between the two parties, claiming he is putting White House money behind renewables while continuing to issue offshore drilling permits, delaying this September the EPA’s Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards until a scheduled review in 2013, asking the State Department to wait till next year to decide on the construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, and allowing a host of renewables tax credits to expire at the end of this year.
Several notable issues have become talking points for the two sides, each combining superficial analysis with overused talking points to accuse the other side of a corrupted approach to the industry.