Finding the Five: Energy Issues '08

The outline of a list in local television news is easy enough. Take your station's channel number and plan on finding just enough substance to enumerate your points accordingly.
The process of narrowing down the field for The Top Energy Stories of 2008 was not nearly so neatly packaged. How do you define "a Story"? Does there need to be an obvious inception and a tidy conclusion? Aren't so many of these "Stories" inexorably tied together?
In our CSTV newsroom we even delved into the delivery of the top-five stories. Chronology? A countdown? Flow? You know, if you gather enough passionate journalists it seems you can eventually devolve into an argument about arguments themselves. Fortunately, we all grew sick enough of Existential Journalism Theory that at the very least we quickly decided on a total of five elements for the segment.
The results? Well, they aired as a nearly four-minute piece on Clean Skies Sunday (Sundays, 9:30 AM EST, on Washington's ABC affiliate WJLA-TV). But how about if we settle for a short list and brief details for this particular forum? We'll succumb to tradition and count backwards, but for chaos' sake we won't count in any particular order.
5) The Pickens Plan: This was the first major energy plan of the election season, though its author wasn't actually a candidate. T. Boone Pickens spent $60 million publicizing his plan to eliminate the need for foreign oil by using more abundant natural gas as a transportation fuel, and replacing gas with wind for electricity generation. Both McCain and Obama made time to hear his pitch.
4) New Shale Natural Gas Plays: In July, Navigant released a study estimating as much as 118-years worth of U.S. natural gas proved reserves at last year's production rate. The problem since then? NYMEX natural gas prices have fallen almost 60% since this year's high set on July 3rd.
3) The Boxer-Lieberman-Warner Bill: Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) amended then introduced the plan to institute the first-ever cap on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Although both McCain and Obama were pushing cap-and-trade policies on the campaign trail, both missed the cloture vote on BLW. Not that it would've mattered, as the bill died without much fight in the Senate.
2) Oil Prices: Oil closed above $100 a barrel on the NYMEX for the first time ever in February, topped the $125 mark in June, and reached an all-time NYMEX high around $147 a barrel the very next month. By December? Oil bottomed out well below $40.
1) The Energy Election: Not that you're likely to forget or even ignore the financial crisis for a moment. But before the fallout became apparent, the presidential candidates were talking energy. Easy to do with voters paying about $4 a gallon this summer. Energy was among the top-three topics on the trail, a talking point in virtually every speech. Until September, that is.
You can catch my year-end story on our website at www.CleanSkies.TV