The message is: incentivise us to use it, or you lose tax revenue from production, and depend more on foreign sources of energy.

BBC: Buzzard platform in the North Sea

Lok Raj Baral, a political scientist, says that in a system of proportional representation some of the Brahmin politicians on whom the parties depend must lose out.

ECONOMIST: Nepal's ethnic politics

And it's not just the impact of not extending it would be bad enough for those people whose jobs would be threatened, who might lose their jobs because of it, it would certainly be bad enough for the companies that depend on it.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney,

But if Romney does lose, it is looking as though the future of the world's most important budget might just depend on who Congressional Republicans blame most for failing to win the White House: President Obama, or Mitt Romney himself.

BBC: Gauging the fiscal cliff