Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

While Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, acknowledges that recent energy legislation has led to reductions in imported oil and emissions, the Senator contends that the achievements are relatively modest compared to the steps that need to be taken to secure the United States' energy future and provide environmental protection. To meet the remaining needs, Bingaman listed six challenges that the new Congress will need to confront: deploying clean energy technology, improving energy efficiency, maintaining adequate supplies of conventional fuels, increasing energy innovation, making energy markets more transparent, and maintaining a balance between energy and environmental policies.

Regarding the establishment of clean energy technologies, Bingaman described the need for improvement in the electricity sector. "A national renewable electricity standard will enhance the diversity of our domestic electricity generation and it will position the United States to regain the world technology lead in these areas and start preparing our electricity sector for the inevitable requirements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

In order to address the challenge of improving energy efficiency, the U.S. would need to take an approach that would include the transportation, building, and industrial sectors. According to Bingaman, efficiency could be improved in these sectors by providing incentives for consumers to purchase more fuel efficient cars, adopting modern energy saving building codes, and reducing the industrial sector's energy intensity.

The Senator pressed for the importance of maintaining an adequate supply of conventional energy, noting that while the goal of energy policy is to move away from the use of fossil fuels, the transition will take time and policy needs to be in place to secure energy supplies in the meantime.

Bingaman said that an increase in energy innovation could be achieved by providing more funding for research. "Our investments in these areas have been totally inadequate for the past decade. We need to boost these levels substantially...One of our challenges in the next congress and for the new administration is to see how we can set up an entity that focuses on protoyping transformative energy technologies that fall between the institutional cracks in the system."

In regard to the fifth challenge, BIngaman discussed how the fluctuation in energy prices essentially happens outside the view of the public. "We clearly need better data and better oversight of these new market players and forces if we want energy markets to function effectively in the future," said Bingaman.

He concluded by noting that in environmental terms there is a need for an immediate energy revolution and for the creation of a regulatory regime to spearhead the effort to balance energy policy and environmental policy.