The Presidential Energy Debate You Won't See on Primetime

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

October 8, 2012 | 3:15 PM

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Obama and Romney campaign surrogates debate energy.

As wonky as last week’s debate between President Obama and Governor Romney was, the two didn’t delve too deeply into energy issues. And it’s unlikely you’ll be hearing too much about the future of energy from either campaign. But E&E TV broadcast a presidential debate on energy between two surrogates that took place Friday at MIT. Joseph Aldy represented President Obama. Aldy teaches at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and he served as a special assistant to the president, advising him on energy and the environment from 2009 to 2010. Oren Cass spoke for Mitt Romney. Cass serves as the campaign’s domestic policy director and previously worked as a consultant at Bain & Company, where Mitt Romney worked before leaving to start Bain Capital. The two debate LNG exports, green energy investments, “clean coal,” and whether or not the Obama Administration has promoted or hampered shale gas development. To watch the debate, click here.