Wyden, eyeing chairmanship, pledges review of green-energy programs

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who is next in line to chair the Energy and Natural Resources Committee if Democrats keep control of the Senate, has already begun to formulate an agenda for the panel.

Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) is not running for reelection, and Wyden occupies the most senior Democratic slot on the committee after the retiring New Mexico senator.

“If I have the opportunity — and we will have to see what happens in November — I am going to do a top-to-bottom review of all of these subsidies and grants,” Wyden told reporters in the Capitol Tuesday, and also said the review would encompass tax incentives.

Wyden, in brief comments to reporters, touched on what he sees as some problems with the current system — including the loan guarantee program that backed the failed solar company Solyndra.

He said that under the current loan guarantee program, everything in the program is in the same “bucket.”

“We ought to at a minimum start differentiating on the basis of risk and reward and the like,” he said.

He also said he supports passage of Bingaman’s proposal for a “clean-energy standard,” which stands almost no chance of advancing in the current Congress, but suggested he would examine it in the context of his larger review.