Inventors and entrepreneurs have countless ideas for reducing manufacturing costs, even in the capital-intensive energy industry.

FORBES: Time To Invest In Hardware And Manufacturing Startups

Environmentalists strongly oppose shale-gas extraction due to fears that fracking may contaminate water supplies, the oil-sands industry because it is energy-intensive and dirty, and deep-water drilling because of the risk of oil spills like last year's Gulf of Mexico disaster.

WSJ: Big Oil Companies Are Shifting Their Focus Back to the West

On the other hand, oil-importing emerging economies to which heavy industry has shifted have become more energy-intensive, and so could be more seriously squeezed.

ECONOMIST: Oil��s pleasant surprise

Change tends to come slowly to the energy industry, which is both capital and time-intensive and only three years have passed since the Stimulus.

FORBES: Countering David Frum: Super-Charging Energy Innovation through Public Investment