Ever since Iowa landed the privilege of holding the first Presidential primary, no candidate has the political courage to confront the $11 billion subsidy price tag of US corn ethanol. Everyone agrees we need to dilute our supply and price vulnerability in transportation fuels and everyone agrees we need to decarbonize the transport sector. But surely not this way.

Oil prices are becoming an increasingly worrisome factor in today’s economies. They have risen dramatically over the past 6 or 7 months and are now driving inflation in many economies and acting as a drag on nearly all. They are not at these levels because markets are fundamentally out of balance.

President Obama has made clear that in the 2012 election, he intends to defend his record on energy from the middle.

Pundits argue that the BP accident in the US Gulf is a final nail in the coffin of President Obama’s energy and environment legislation. They conclude that American energy and environment policy will be left in disarray with little hope for key decisions before the crucial Cancun climate change talks.

Introduction

With the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty completed the EU is undergoing profound institutional changes. How does the US perceive the EU and these changes?

To analyze American perceptions of the EU it is first necessary to distinguish between the general American public and the American political elite.