Jeff Bingaman: “One of the issues that was raised by the Senator from Georgia was a concern about whether or not this preempted States…”

“One of the issues that was raised by the Senator from Georgia was a concern about whether or not this preempted States from doing what they wanted to do about renewable energy generation. It does not do that. There is no way that we in any way preempt a State from taking action. There are many States that have taken action which far exceeds the standards to which we would be holding them. So this is not in any way an effort to preempt States. It is an effort to move them along this road, and some of them are already a great deal of distance down this road. Let me also discuss the idea of wealth transfer. My colleague from Arizona has said repeatedly that this is a terrible thing because some States are at such a terrible disadvantage. The truth is--and the various maps that my friend from North Dakota showed earlier make the point very clearly--we do not specify in this legislation which type of renewable resource be used. Instead, we allow each State to use whatever is available to them. There are a great many different resources available.”