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Disruptive power: How innovation is reshaping the energy landscape

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Recent gyrations in the price of oil mask longer-term shifts, driven by innovation and fresh ideas, that are altering the very structure, geographies and politics of the energy industry. The plunging prices of oil over the last half of 2014 have dramatically altered the global energy landscape. The US' successes over the last three years in tapping its (environmentally controversial and finite) resources of shale oil have  repositioned it from an importer to a potential exporter of oil . This unexpected excess coupled with reduced demand has rebalanced the supply and demand equations for carbon-based energy supplies thereby  driving down the price of oil by almost 50%  by the end of 2014. This has had cascading impacts on sectors such as  government subsidies , electricity production,  aviation , transportation and the  consumer's willingness to splurge their saved gas money on more Christmas gifts . These recent gyrations in the prices of oil mark significantly more important