Talk is Cheap

Jeff Bingaman

Once again while serving as Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Senator Jeff Bingaman continued to offer observers a tangled web of contradictions. This week Bingaman pointed to rising tensions in Egypt as a reason to spur action on reducing foreign oil imports. He also sent off a few signals that he now favors clearing the way for nuclear power projects. “Fortunately, it currently appears unlikely that the political turmoil will result in any disruption in oil production or transportation,” Bingaman said. “However, I note that whenever geopolitical events remind us of our vulnerability to world oil supply disruptions, it is a spur to consider energy policies that help us reduce that vulnerability.”

Bingaman is an astute politician not an energy policy problem solver. He merely talks a good game before the light of the cameras when global events suggest the spotlight might start to shine on the intransigence of his committee’s stranglehold on all forms of viable domestic energy production. A mere cursory glance at votes cast by Senator Bingaman tells a much different and far more disturbing story about his attitude towards solving America’s energy problems than what he says.

Bingaman’s votes provide sufficient evidence that the senator favors anything except additional oil and nuclear energy production in America. Let’s look at some of the votes Jeff Bingaman has cast over the years. Bingaman voted YES on requiring full Senate debate and vote on the notorious cap-and-trade proposal. The senator voted YES on addressing CO2 emissions in the United States without considering the CO2 emissions of India or China. Bingaman voted YES on factoring global warming into all federal project planning. And of course Bingaman has repeatedly voted YES to keeping every barrier in place that disallows an oil leasing program in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, even the tiny portion of land that alternates between a mosquito infested swamp and bitterly cold frozen plain.

Senator Bingaman has also voted NO on approving a nuclear waste repository, specifically approving the interim nuclear waste repository located at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Without an integrated management system for storage and permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, a conversion to nuclear energy in the U.S. is virtually impossible. Bingaman even voted NO to a proposal that would promise to protect middle-income taxpayers from a national energy tax.

This week there were record low temperatures in New Mexico. There were also shortages of all forms of energy that caused rolling blackouts resulting in the closing of schools and businesses all over our state. Naturally, while people were home and bundled up in blankets, it was not surprising to see that Senator Bingaman wanted to show how attentive he is to our energy needs. It was a shell game. It is best to watch how he casts his precious votes instead of assigning any credibility to the platitudes of empathy he tossed in the direction of the shivering voters he represents.

Talk is Cheap