Jeff Bingaman: “the bill before us is not perfect. It does not go as far I would have liked, or others may have liked, to reduce our…”

“the bill before us is not perfect. It does not go as far I would have liked, or others may have liked, to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, to improve our automobile fuel efficiency, or to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But it makes a good start. The bill puts the Senate on record, for the first time, as saying that global warming is a problem and that we need to take serious action to address it. The bill stops short of taking those actions itself, but it acknowledges the problem, and that is an important--indeed essential--step in the right direction. The bill also takes major steps toward increasing the amount of energy we use to make our electricity and to fuel our cars and trucks from renewable energy sources. It promotes the development and deployment of new energy technologies, improves energy efficiency, and modernizes our electricity laws. It was a good bill coming out of committee and it has been made better on the floor. Much of the credit for the bill goes to Chairman Domenici for the fair, open, and bipartisan process he used to draft the bill and shepherd it through the committee and on the floor. Not all issues were resolved the way he would have liked or I would have liked, but he let the committee and the Senate work their will. It has resulted in a good bill. Special thanks must also go to the committee staff, both majority and minority, who put in long hours and hard work on the bill over the last several months.…”