Unconventional energy to take the USA ahead of Saudi Arabia

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It says the USA will need less energy thanks to new fuel efficiency standards for cars and lorries, and its predicted growth in unconventional sources, notably shale gas. The report also says fossil fuels remained the most significant source of power in 2011, with little sign that this will change, and that global subsidies for fossil fuels were $523 billion, up nearly 30% on 2010 and six times more than subsidies for renewable energy.

• Environmentalists staged a demonstration outside the White House earlier this month to encourage Barack Obama to refuse to give a permit to the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which if built will bring large amounts of oil derived from tar sands from Alberta in western Canada into the USA. Obama’s Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney had said he would approve the pipeline on his first day in office, but Obama has been less clear about his intentions.