What happened is the government pulled the rug from under the oil and gas industry by canceling out the Utah leases, at the same time as the industry drilled its way out of prosperity (in the US shale-gas reserves ramp-up) and simultaneously killed the world economy (with $145/bbl oil that nobody could afford = tipping point of recession). Now we have excess resource in the USA of natural gas, and an oversupply of world oil from Opec. The US oil and gas industry will die off slowly or at least consolidate substantially, while at the same time alternative energy fails to gain traction because wind and solar cannot compete with cheap natural gas and cheap coal for generating electricity.
Sarah Palin lost.