Jeff Bingaman: “Billions of dollars of hardrock minerals can be mined from Federal lands without payment of a royalty.”

I would certainly like to thank Senator Bingaman, who just retired just very recently, for the strong support that he has shown me over the years, and including support for this nomination.

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.

It's important that we have a person with substantial knowledge and many varied skills in order to succeed.