President Obama announced a crackdown on manipulation and speculation in the oil markets, calling for more government oversight of the oil markets, including increased funding and staffing for the Commodities Future Trading Commission and an increase in civil and criminal penalties for market manipulators. Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service, looks at Obama’s speech, oil speculation, and energy pricing.

The Northwest has long been a major source of exports. Timber and paper once dominated the Northwest market; these days, it's all about coal. Demand for coal has dropped in the United States, but the clamor for coal in Asia's growing markets has American companies lobbying for controversial coal terminals along the train tracks in Washington and Oregon to transport coal mined in Montana. Explaining this coal controversy is Ashley Ahearn, an environmental reporter for KUOW in Seattle, and a contributor to their "Coal in the Northwest" series.

In the summer of 2009, Van Jones, special adviser on the environment and green jobs to President Obama, faced a media firestorm. It was fueled by investigations into his past. Jones, a committed environmental activist and civil rights attorney, resigned the following September. "On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide," he said at the time. Since Jones resigned over two years ago, President Obama has faced mounting criticism from environmental activists, while contenders for the GOP nomination claim that the president is too extreme in his efforts to protect the environment.

Energy independence has the potentitial to completely reshape American foreign policy and the U.S. economy, yet environmental concerns persist. We're joined by Clifford Krauss, oil and gas business reporter for our partner The New York Times, to discuss the possibility of energy independence.

Yesterday, President Obama kicked off a two-day tour to highlight his administration’s energy strategy, which includes a stop in a small city called Cushing. If you aren’t from Oklahoma, you might not know about Cushing, or why it factors into the president’s energy plans. Ben Allen, a reporter from affiliate station KOSU in Oklahoma City, is here to explain. Carol O’Dell owned a ranch just outside Cushing, and she’s still a regular visitor to the town.

Gas prices rose for the ninth straight day Sunday. The average price for a gallon of gasoline is now $3.83 — not that far from July 2008’s record high of $4.11. In fact, gas prices are already more than $4 a gallon in seven states. As gas prices have risen, they’ve also increasingly become a touchy political talking point. This week President Obama is setting off on a four state tour to promote and defend his energy policies. He'll stop in Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, and Oklahoma.

One year ago this Sunday a massive earthquake devastated northeast Japan. The Japanese barely had time to catch their breath before waves of water 30 feet high crashed down on the coast. Twenty-thousand people died; 90,000 were evacuated. The natural disasters were soon followed by a nuclear crisis. In the year since the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Japan has had to face difficult questions on the state of their nuclear regulations and the country’s energy future.

The markets responded positively to the news last week of a euro zone deal to try and turn around their two-year financial crisis. Marcus Mabry, editor-at-large of the International Herald Tribune, which is the international edition of The New York Times, tells us how he expects the markets to continue to go this week and to be on the lookout at Italy, which could be the next euro zone country to be in financial trouble. Charlie Herman, business and economics editor for WNYC and The Takeaway, looks at the upcoming G20 Summit in France this week, and if they can come up with a framework to deal with Europe's economic troubles.

Within a week, the northeastern United States was hit by both an earthquake and hurricane. Following Hurricane Irene, four million homes and businesses lost electricity. According to experts like Dan Genest of Dominion Virginia Power, turning the lights back on will be no easy task. He told the AP that "one broken pole can take six to seven hours to repair."

Last week, President Barack Obama unveiled his strategy for a staged troop withdrawal out of Afghanistan. He followed the announcement with a plan to focus more attention on rebuilding the home front. We asked our listeners how they would put the estimated $10 billion per month that the country currently spends in Afghanistan to better use here at home. We received a ton of great responses, many of them focused on the exploration and development of green technologies.

Does the ethanol industry still need government subsidies? That is the question that will be debated in the Senate with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) forcing a vote on a measure to repeal ethanol tax credits. Ethanol supporters argue that the alternative energy source should not be targeted, but cutting the subsidies could save the federal government billions. Takeaway Washington correspondent, Todd Zwillich, reports.

The battle over environmental regulations has reached a fever pitch in Kentucky. The EPA is proposing a package of major policy rules aimed at curbing emissions from coal-fired plants, drawing widespread opposition from business interests. Backers of the Kentucky's coal mining industry are fighting the EPA over regulations, with some going so far as saying Kentucky should be a "sanctuary," protected from all EPA regulations.

The crisis in Japan has finally hit home for stock markets around the world. Investors are concerned that electronics manufacturers, who import chips from Japan could be affected by lapses in the supply chain. Two of Japan's top companies, Honda and Toyota have halted production at their Japanese plants and Detroit is highly dependent on parts from Japan. At the same time, the disaster in Japan has raised questions about the energy industry here in the United States. 

Greg Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission briefed reporters at the White House on Tuesday, saying that a nuclear emergency like the one in Japan could not happen in the United States. “Based on the type of reactor design and the nature of the accident we see a very low likelihood, really a very low probability that there’s any possibility of harmful radiation levels in the United States or in Hawaii, or in any other U.S. territories," he said.

However, Washington is edge about what to do about our own nuclear power sources here in the U.S. Todd Zwillich, Washington correspondent for The Takeaway got reaction from the Capitol.

The world is witnessing first-hand the potential dangers of nuclear energy, as Japan faces the threat of a nuclear meltdown at several power plants, including the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, just 140 miles north of Tokyo. An explosion rocked the plant in the following Friday's earthquake. President Obama has been pushing nuclear energy as part of his new and clean energy policy, but the current events in Japan could be a setback. How will the disaster affect the industry?

Back in 2008, the price of a barrel of oil rose to $133, and prices at the pump topped $4 per gallon. As the economy slowed, and demand for oil dropped, the price did as well. However, the cost of oil has risen to just over $90 a barrel, as confidence in the economic recovery grows stronger and the price of filling up your car is expected to keep rising throughout 2011. What will happen to our economic recovery if we hit the psychological benchmark of $100 per barrel or higher this year?

New "current cruisers," the first mass-marketed plug-in electric cars, will hit the market next month. For utility companies, their arrival is cause for both excitement and anxiety. Plugged into a socket, the Nissan Leafs and Chevrolet Volts can draw as much energy from the grid as a small house. Will the early adopters – and their neighborhoods – wind up in the dark?

Where are the similarities between presidents number 39 and 44?

Besides a focus on energy policy and putting solar panels on top of the White House, there are also deeper connections. Both Democrats rose quickly to power on the heels of an unpopular Republican presidency. They both faced an economy in crisis.  And they both spent a lot of time in office learning one important lesson, it's nice to have good ideas — but it's better to be able to sell them. 

In today’s tough economic times, we frequently talk about conserving energy, cutting down on waste and living more frugally.

Despite these good intentions, a new study in the American Chemical Society's journal indicates that the food Americans throw out or leave in fields to rot wastes the equivalent of 350 million barrels of oil a year. That's about 70 times the amount of oil in the BP Gulf oil spill.

Russia is attempting to stake out both literal and diplomatic territory over the division of natural resources in the Arctic region.