Following last year’s ASPO conference, I was interviewed by Aaron Wissner of Local Future, which is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to issues of energy, the environment, and sustainability. Aaron just made that interview available, and instead of an R-Squared Energy TV episode this week, I thought I would share this interview with readers.

Among other things, we discuss:

• The reasons that I became interested in energy issues
• My Long Recession hypothesis
• The relationship between oil prices and recession
• The importance of taking control of your personal energy consumption
• Why lower oil consumption in the U.S. didn’t lead to lower oil prices
• The climate change challenge

Because it is election season, the rhetoric on energy is heating up. Over the next few columns I will begin to take a closer look at the energy policies of the candidates, beginning with Mitt Romney’s recently-released energy plan.