Energy policy is quickly emerging as one of the defining issues of the 2012 US presidential campaign

Following the suspension of Rick Santorum’s campaign on 10 April, Mitt Romney will shortly be nominated as the Republican Party’s candidate to face President Obama in November’s US election.

Romney looks set to make energy policy the defining electoral issue of his campaign – opening up attacks on the president on a number of related fronts. The high price of gasoline at the pump across the United States in 2012 has particularly stoked discontent with Obama and has enabled Romney to launch a series of interlinked attacks on issues including gasoline prices, oil and gas drilling, energy independence and environmental policy.

Although there has been a slight reduction in the price of gasoline over the past month, prices remain very high at slightly below US$4 per gallon, it seems likely therefore that energy policy will become one of the defining issues of the 2012 presidential campaign. The following outlines the candidates’ key energy policies to date and explains how they differ: (more…)