Jeff Bingaman: “Those of us who are about to vote against cloture do so not because we are against having an Energy bill but because we…”

“Those of us who are about to vote against cloture do so not because we are against having an Energy bill but because we are against having this Energy bill. A view has been stated over the last few days that this particular conference report, even with its problematic provisions and its excess spending, is the only option available if we wish to deal with energy problems in this Congress. It is argued that if we do not pass this bill today, then energy is dead as an issue for this Congress. In my view, that is not a logical conclusion to reach. We are not at the end of this Congress. We are reaching the midpoint in this Congress. There is nothing magical about having to pass energy legislation in odd-numbered years. The Energy Policy Act of 1992, which was the last fairly comprehensive bill passed through this Congress, was put to final passage a few weeks before the Presidential election in that year. There is a broad consensus in the Senate for enacting forward-looking energy legislation.”