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A Clean Energy Standard for America

This week, answering the President’s call in the last two State of the Union addresses, Senator Bingaman proposed legislation that would establish a Clean Energy Standard for America. This is an important step towards the President’s goal of doubling clean energy by 2035, and we look forward to working with Congress as the bill moves forward.

Since taking office, President Obama has been committed to an all-of-the-above energy strategy that expands production of American energy resources, like oil and natural gas; increases energy efficiency to save families and businesses money at the pump; and drives investment and innovation in clean energy technologies.

A centerpiece of that strategy is the President’s ambitious but achievable goal to double the share of the Nation’s electricity from clean energy sources – including renewable energy sources like wind, solar, biomass, and hydropower; nuclear power; efficient natural gas; clean coal; even new technologies that have yet to be invented.  It’s a wide-ranging approach that will drive innovation and create jobs across the country.

Over the past three years, the Obama Administration has already made significant progress. We’ve made the largest investment in renewable energy in American history. We’ve nearly doubled the amount of electricity generated from renewable sources like wind, solar, and geothermal. We’ve supported the world’s largest wind farm and several of the largest solar power projects. Domestic production of natural gas has risen to near-record levels, and last year the first new nuclear power plant was approved in three decades.

But we need to do more. We need to take additional steps to build a clean energy economy that can creates new jobs, reduces pollution, and makes America more competitive. The legislation introduced by Senator Bingaman this week is an important step forward in meeting that goal.

Our Dependence on Foreign Oil Is Declining

America’s dependence on foreign oil has gone down every single year since President Obama took office. In 2010, we imported less than 50 percent of the oil our nation consumed—the first time that’s happened in 13 years—and the trend continued in 2011.

We’re relying less on imported oil for a number of reasons, not least that production is up here in the United States. In fact, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. As part of his strategy to increase safe, responsible oil production in the United States, President Obama has opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration and we now have more working oil and gas rigs than the rest of the world—combined.

Despite all this, Americans are still paying more at the pump when we fill up. That's because drilling for more oil here at home won’t affect the price of gas on its own. Oil is bought and sold on a world market. In the short term, it’s subject to price spikes when there’s instability or uncertainty along the global supply chain. And growing demand in countries like India, Brazil, and China, which tripled the number of cars on the road in the last five years, will drive prices even higher over the long term.

So we have to do more than drill now to bring down prices for the future. Relying on the fossil fuels of the last century won’t be enough, especially as demand keeps increasing. We need an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy. This includes everything from tapping our offshore oil supplies and vast natural gas reserves, to doubling down on clean energy resources like wind and solar power, and developing new technologies that help us use less energy altogether.