This morning, the Senate passed Chairman Bingaman's broad energy bill out of committee by a 15-8 vote. The passage of this bill is quite bittersweet--it's exciting to see a bill that addresses so many vital energy issues, but unfortunately this bill has been significantly weakened and in its current form is not nearly as strong as it needs to be if we are going to transition to a new energy economy.

During the committee process the bill took some major hits, including the Renewable Energy Standard being rendered basically useless. The standard was lowered so significantly that many estimates show that it will create no additional clean energy or clean energy jobs than would be created from requirements already in place and current levels of investment. An additional blow is that the current bill does not have a separate Energy Efficiency Resource Standard, completely ignoring the easily achievable, enormous cost savings benefits offered through efficiency measures.

The bill also blurs the line on the definition of "renewable" energy, providing incentives that could be used to fund the development of coal, nuclear, and municipal solid waste incineration facilities. Another unfortunate committee modification to the bill would allow increased offshore oil drilling--hardly a step towards our new, clean energy economy.

So while the bill has passed out of committee--a "win"--there is still an enormous amount of work that needs to be done on the Senate floor to strengthen this bill to a point where it will do all that it promised to do: create clean energy jobs, increase our supply of renewable energy, achieve energy efficiency, and propel us forward on the path towards energy independence and a clean energy future.