developing new technologies has historically been a great strength of the United States.

the government as a partner the United States can continue to lead in the clean energy sector.

the costs all of us pay in national energy and climate and economic insecurity are unacceptably high

we've been sending much more uncertain signals recently.

we commend the leadership of the entire committee. Senator Bingaman in particular, for his years of leadership on this issue

The purpose of the Clean Energy Standard is to establish a national standard for electricity.

Chairman Bingaman's Clean Energy Standard Act of 2012 is a very important step in that direction.

We thank Senator Bingaman and his cosponsors for introducing this bill to create a national clean energy standard (CES).

By design it would drive continued diversity in our sources of energy.

It would also allow each region to deploy clean energy using resources appropriate to that region.

Senator Bingaman's CES proposal embodies a number of design features, including the following, that are innovative and reasonably balance the multiple objectives I described earlier.