Jeff Bingaman: “Thank you for your leadership.”

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.

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.

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