Bingaman to lead clean energy-use effort

WASHINGTON – Former Sen. Jeff Bingaman, who retired from the Senate in January after a 36-year career, is headed to Stanford University Law School to lead an effort to promote clean energy use.

Bingaman, a former chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and a Stanford law graduate, will join the law school’s Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance as a distinguished fellow responsible for developing policies to assist states and local communities in using more clean energy.

According to the center, 29 states and the District of Columbia have policies to use more electricity from renewable energy sources. Seven other states have adopted voluntary goals for generation of electricity from renewable sources.

“Bingaman’s efforts will focus on actions that could be taken to extend and update those policies,” the university’s news release said.

“Sen. Bingaman will bring unparalleled policy and finance experience to the work of the center at a moment when energy is on the national and international agenda like never before,” said Dan Reicher, executive director of the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance.

In an email to the Journal, Bingaman said he and his wife, Anne, will maintain their residence in Santa Fe as he goes to work on the fellowship at Stanford.

“My arrangement with the law school is that I will be here (at Stanford) this spring quarter (from) April 1 – June 15,” Bingaman said in the email. “Anne and I will be at Stanford for those 10 or 11 weeks. During the rest of the year I will travel to Stanford as the work requires – probably a week each month.”

Next week, Bingaman is scheduled to introduce Ernest Moniz, President Obama’s energy secretary nominee, at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, April 9.

Taking aim: A new conservative public policy group this week began airing radio and TV ads in New Mexico as part of an initiative to shape public debate heading into the next election.

The group – called GOAL – aims to educate and mobilize New Mexicans about conservative causes and will focus especially on economics and job creation. Its new radio ad takes aim at the federal government protecting the lesser prairie chicken at what GOAL says is at the expense of New Mexico jobs.

Jason Heffley, a former staffer for Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., is the organization’s executive director. He told the Journal on Tuesday that in addition to airing policy ads, GOAL will host public events and other activities to inform New Mexicans about conservative issues and priorities.

Heffley said the organization is in part a response to the Obama for America campaign, which effectively informed and mobilized Democrats in the run-up to the 2012 election campaign.

Mark Murphy, president of Strata Production Co. in Roswell – a small oil and gas firm – is on the GOAL board of directors. He said the group will likely form a corresponding political action committee before the next election to help finance political campaigns that align with GOAL’s priorities.
— This article appeared on page C01 of the Albuquerque Journal