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"Don't let all those Texas wind farms and massive installations of solar panels in California fool you. The U.S. is not the world leader in clean energy investment. China is. For the second year, an annual Pew Charitable Trusts report, "Who's Winning the Clean Energy Race?", shows that China is the world leader in clean energy investment, with $54 billion in investments in renewables in 2013, well above total U.S. investment of $36.7 billion."

"More than 1,500 barrels of crude oil per day gushed from the "Jake" oil well when EOG Resources drilled and fracked the well into the Niobrara shale in northern Colorado in the fall of 2009. That gusher marked the beginning of one of the biggest oil booms in the state's history, part of a larger shale oil rush playing out in Colorado, Texas, North Dakota and elsewhere today making the U.S. the world's leader in oil production this year. Those booming shale oil and gas plays are all successful because of advances in fracking and horizontal drilling technology and the speed with which companies are drilling new wells. In some regions, the booms are playing out near homes and schools in suburban areas, particularly in Colorado, where they contribute to widespread concern about climate change-driving methane leaks, air pollution, groundwater contamination and the industrialization of residential areas."

"Beverly McGuire saw the warning signs before the town well went dry: sand in the toilet bowl, the sputter of air in the tap, a pump working overtime to no effect. But it still did not prepare her for the night last month when she turned on the tap and discovered the tiny town where she had made her home for 35 years was out of water."