Jeff Bingaman: “I generally agree with the Senator from California that we need a balanced energy policy. We need to not only do things…”

“I generally agree with the Senator from California that we need a balanced energy policy. We need to not only do things to increase supply, but we also need to reduce demand in this country. We have fallen short in that regard. I have proposed legislation, which the administration strongly supports, much of which the Senator from California referred to, that I believe would help us to reduce demand and also help us to increase production. I am sorry that we have not been able, as a Congress, and as a Senate, to bring that up for consideration this year. I hope we still can before we adjourn, but the days are growing short. Let me speak for a minute about the particular bill and the royalty-in-kind issue. As I understand it, the action which started this discussion was an effort to move to H.R. 2884. This is the House version of EPCA. EPCA stands for Energy Policy and Conservation Act. That is an important piece of legislation. It reauthorizes the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.”