After five months attempting to craft energy legislation, the GOP today decided they did not have the bipartisan support they needed, so they turned to the Bingaman-Daschle energy bill that passed in the last Congress on a powerful 88-11 vote. Here are Sen. Jeff Bingaman’s thoughts on tonight’s vote: “I’m pleased that the Senate recognized the value of the long, hard work that Members put into an energy bill in the last Congress, the balance we successfully stuck between energy production and energy efficiency, and our recognition of the linkage between energy policy and environmental policy, including climate change. “Passage of the bill again in this Congress is a vindication of the leadership shown by Sen. Daschle in the last Congress. The strength of this bill is its broad, bipartisan support, and we hope the conference will produce a bill that can command similar bipartisan support.” # # #