Jeff Bingaman: “Dr. Chu's nomination comes at a pivotal time in the Department's history.”

He has demonstrated, on numerous occasions, his ability to find solutions to very difficult problems and to find solutions that could gain the support of Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike.

First we would want a person as Secretary of Energy who had a knowledge of science and engineering.

I think all of us, if we were choosing a Secretary of Energy, would want to choose somebody with those attributes.

In December 2010 U.S. Senators Tom Udall, Tom Harkin, and Jeff Bingaman requested an independent study from the National Academy of Sciences on whether chimpanzees are necessary as invasive research subjects.