Clinton Cites Energy in Diplomacy From Oil to Climate

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-18/clinton-cites-energy-in-diplomacy-from-oil-to-climate.html

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today promoted energy as a foreign-policy priority, citing Iran and the South China Sea as oil-rich expanses where diplomacy and economics converge.

“Today, energy cuts across the entirety of U.S. foreign policy,” she said in a speech at Georgetown University in Washington. The top U.S. diplomat cited the U.S. role in helping boost Iraq’s oil production and brokering an oil-sharing agreement between South Sudan and Sudan as examples of “energy diplomacy.”

Her comments come in the final week of a tight presidential election campaign where candidates are sparring over domestic oil and gas production, crude prices and coal even as the topic of global climate change has been largely left out of the debate.

Under Clinton’s watch, the State Department created a bureau dedicated to energy. The department also has an in-house economist, part of Clinton’s efforts to expand her toolbox.



*** i'm interested to see what this new bureau does.