Bingaman preps ‘clean’ power plan after SOTU shout-out

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) is getting close to unveiling a proposed “clean” electric power standard – a plan President Obama admitted Tuesday night has not gained the traction that Obama had hoped.

“We are still finalizing what we are going to propose. I am planning to do that in the next few weeks,” Bingaman told E2Wire in the Capitol after Obama’s State of the Union address.

The plan would require power companies to supply escalating amounts of electricity from various low-carbon (or at least lower-carbon) sources such as natural gas, wind and nuclear energy.

Obama floated a “clean energy standard” in his 2011 State of the Union speech that would require 80 percent of U.S. power from low-carbon sources by 2035. The president, in this year’s speech Tuesday, touted the proposal again.

He mentioned the standard in acknowledging that there’s not political support in Congress to pass wider climate change legislation. But Obama noted the clean energy standard hasn’t advanced either.

“The differences in this chamber may be too deep right now to pass a comprehensive plan to fight climate change,” Obama said. “But there’s no reason why Congress shouldn’t at least set a clean energy standard that creates a market for innovation. So far, you haven’t acted.”

Obama then touted other renewables proposals he’s pursuing without Congress. But Bingaman took a glass-half-full approach to Obama’s decision to mention the standard in a speech.

“He mentioned it as a way to deal with our environmental problems and responsibly with our energy needs. I think it is worth putting out there and we will see,” said Bingaman, who for months has been readying the proposal for early 2012 release.

The clean energy standard faces long odds in the Senate and even bigger hurdles in the GOP-led House. “This is a difficult environment in which to get anything major done. We all recognize that,” Bingaman said.

Asked if he would try and steer the measure through the energy committee, Bingaman replied: “I don’t know. We will have to see what the reaction of folks is.”