Senator Bingaman Outlines Energy Priorities at National Press Club

Senator Jeff Bingaman, Chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee outlined his priorities for an energy agenda for the 112th Congress at a packed luncheon of over 250 people at the National Press Club on Monday, January 31 hosted by NDN/New Policy Institute.

The Senator outlined four elements which he said should be at the heart of a comprehensive energy legislation to make the United States competitive in global energy markets.

  • to ensure that the U.S. remains at the forefront of energy research and development.
  • to ensure that the U.S. has a strong domestic market for clean energy technologies to create the incentive to manufacture and deploy these technologies in the USA. 
  • to ensure that the U.S. has  the necessary financial infrastructure and incentives to provide the capital needed to build advanced energy technology projects. 
  • to ensure that the U.S. have explicit policies to promote the development of U.S. manufacturing capabilities for these clean energy technologies. 

Senator BingamanLast week in the State of the Union President Obama advocated for "80% of the country's electricity to come from clean sources which he said included solar, wind, natural gas, clean coal, and nuclear energy.  Senator Bingaman indicated a desire to work with the White House, "My own view is that if we can develop a workable clean energy standard that actually continues to provide an incentive for renewable energy projects to move forward and can provide an additional incentive for some of the other clean energy technologies, nuclear being one, I would like to see that happen," I'm approaching the issue with a willingness to work on trying to come up with a way to achieve what the president set out."

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