Now that the election is settled, there's another fight to be resolved. President Obama is already facing new public pressure over the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline.
After the votes were counted, oil companies and refiners made it immediately known that they will take denial of a Keystone cross-border permit as an indication that Obama will be hostile to them in his second term. Environmental groups are also ramping up their lobbying, and plan to bring their own pressure to bear next Sunday.
President Barack Obama said Friday he will not budge during budget deficit talks with Republicans from his demand that wealthier Americans pay more taxes, which he called critical to domestic green energy jobs and other spending priorities.
"We can't just cut our way to prosperity," Obama said in his first public remarks since his victory speech after Tuesday's election. He said higher revenues are needed to reduce the deficit and continue spending on clean energy jobs, education and infrastructure.
Voters on Tuesday returned President Barack Obama to the White House for another four years, but they did little to settle the divisions over energy and the environment in Washington.
With Republicans easily retaining their hold on the House, and Democrats keeping their slim majority in the Senate, there is scant reason to believe that any new consensus will emerge soon on such hot button issues of coal pollution, green energy and global warming.
Republican challenger Mitt Romney conceded the presidential election early Wednesday morning, wishing President Obama well during his second four years in office.
Romney called the president, then appeared in Boston before his Republican supporters at campaign headquarters.
"This is a time of great challenges for America, and I pray the president will be successful in guiding our nation," Romney said.
A majority of Americans who headed to the polls Tuesday believed the economy, their top concern, was stuck in the same low gear or getting worse. But in the end, they were unwilling to order a change in Washington’s leadership.
After enduring more than $2 billion in advertising and relentless campaigning, voters ended the election debate where it started two years ago: re-electing President Barack Obama and dividing control of Congress. And that will make the job of governing in a gridlocked Washington all the more challenging during the next two years.
President Barack Obama was poised to secure a second term in the White House Tuesday night after a hard-fought campaign that exposed voter frustrations with a lagging economy along with the willingness of Americans to give him a second chance.
Voters set the stage Tuesday night for two more years of partisan divide on Capitol Hill, with Republicans poised to hold their House majority while Democrats kept their grip on the Senate in what was shaping up to be mostly a status-quo election.
President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were locked in a razor-thin race nationally, with the swing states of Florida and Ohio hanging in the balance. Midway through the evening, Romney led in Florida while Obama led in Ohio, but several Democratic strongholds were still waiting to count votes in both states.
Preliminary results of an exit poll conducted for The Associated Press show that the presidential election hinges once again on the economy.
The survey of voters as they leave polling places Tuesday shows 6 in 10 voters say the economy is the top issue facing the nation, with unemployment and rising prices hitting voters hard.
After a robust campaign that offered voters a stark choice on the role of government, Election Day arrived Tuesday with no clear leader in the race for the White House.
About the only certainty is the victor -- Barack Obama or Mitt Romney -- will inherit a Congress poised to once again be sharply divided over energy and environmental policy.
Election forecasters predict Democrats are likely to keep control of the Senate, while Republicans hold their majority in the House. And that would mean two more years of partisan warfare that will leave the president to wield power frequently through executive authority.
As weary drivers in New York and New Jersey continued to sit in long lines for gasoline, President Barack Obama has ordered the Energy Department to help get emergency generators and gasoline deliveries to local stations.
The order was the latest step by Obama to relieve a severe energy supply interruption caused by Hurricane Sandy last week. It comes as Obama heads into Tuesday's presidential election enjoying strong public approval so far of his response to the superstorm that walloped the East Coast and hit the New Jersey coast, New York City and southern Connecticut hardest.
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said growing stocks of U.S. natural gas can serve as a bridge to develop more renewable energy capacity, The Verge reports.
The State Department released the first batch of 100,000 public comments on its draft environmental impact study of the Keystone XL pipeline, Bloomberg reports.
Employees at the Environmental Protection Agency and three other agencies will take their first furloughs stemming from budget cuts today, Politico reports.
Current and former U.S. officials say Iranian hackers have boosted cyberattacks against computer networks at energy companies, Dow Jones Business News reports.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell is in Portland, Ore., on Friday to announce new energy cooperation with Gov. John Kitzhaber and a representative of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, The Hill reports.
Attorneys general in four Northeastern states announced they would petition the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a new review of regulations governing nuclear waste storage, The Associated Press reports.
A panel of infrastructure experts in New Jersey criticized Gov. Chris Christie for remarks that suggested there was no evidence of a link between climate change and Hurricane Sandy, E&E Publishing reports.
Participants in the Energy Department's Better Buildings Challenge, designed to reduce energy consumption at buildings, saved about $58 million in energy costs last year, The Journal Sentinel reports.
Commodities firm Prime International Trading Ltd., filed lawsuits against BP, Statoil and Royal Dutch Shell for alleged price manipulation, Reuters reports.
