There is much to be said about President Obama's remarks. We have talked for decades and decades about oil dependence and about the need to “break our addiction.” Government regulation has been held captive by oil lobbyists. We do lack the political will to move away from the traditional energy path. And, tragically, the country may now have an opportunity to focus on an energy transition because of the ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Later in his remarks, the president also called the transition to a clean energy future a national mission to be furthered by technological research and innovation and through a new energy economy. This chapter explores the political impediments that have prevented the transition and argues, more hopefully, that a new energy politics is emerging. The new politics is based on a non-partisan consensus energy policy and is supported by a broad array of public and private actors employing a wide set of strategies to make a transformation to a clean energy future possible.