Bingaman ‘anxious’ to work with Obama on clean energy standard despite skepticism

“I never felt it was a bad idea. I just haven’t seen a concrete proposal yet that I thought was workable and made sense,” Bingaman said after a committee hearing on the BP oil spill.

“I am anxious to work with the president and [Energy] Secretary Chu, and Republicans and the Democrats, to see if we can come up with a proposal that does what the president outlined,” Bingaman added.

Asked about introducing legislation that reflects Obama’s plan, Bingaman replied: “We need to get some expert advice as to what would be required and how this would work.”

Bingaman said the White House reached out to him ahead of Obama’s Tuesday speech. “I told them we would be glad to look at it, work with them and see what could be accomplished,” Bingaman said.

A wider standard that credits sources like nuclear energy and natural gas could be a bridge to more bipartisan support. We blogged Tuesday night about Obama’s pitch here, here and here.