Jeff Bingaman: “I do not favor going ahead with opening ANWR to drilling, and I think this is a debate which has continued, frankly, for…”

“I do not favor going ahead with opening ANWR to drilling, and I think this is a debate which has continued, frankly, for decades in this Senate and in this country. My own view is the long-term energy needs of our country can be best met with a balanced, comprehensive bill, which we are trying hard to enact and perfect in the Senate, that encourages domestic production in ways that are not environmentally objectionable to a substantial portion of our population. I mentioned those. There are substantial opportunities for us to increase production on the North Slope of Alaska. There are substantial opportunities for us to increase production in the Rocky Mountain region, and I know that is going to be objectionable to some people, but we have a lot of production in my State. I think there are opportunities for additional production. There is a lot of opportunity for increased production in the gulf that we can benefit from substantially. In addition to that domestic production, though, we need to have a heavy emphasis on increased efficiency.”