>> we recognize that congress certainly has the power under the commerce clause to deal with the subject of the disposal of low level radioactive waste but it is our position that the means it has chosen here is constitutionally defective. >> there's much that is speculative in our view premature about the complaint concerning the title provision that new york is asking this court to use as a vehicle for undoing this entire statutory scheme. >> the state of new york and others versus the united states and others. saturday at 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span radio. ♪ they tell the same story. they head down to the gas station, they make sure a few cameras are following them. and then they start acting like we got a magic wand and we'll

give you cheap gas forever if you just elect us. every time. been the same script for 30 years. like a bad rerun. >> the president in largo, maryland in what the "new york times" describes as a weekly ritual for the president defending his administration's energy policy in the face of relentlessly rising gasoline prices as prices now about $3.80 here in the baltimore/washington area and as high as $4.50 to upwards of $5 for premium unleaded in california, washington state and oregon. welcome to hour one of "washington today" here on c-span radio. i'm steve scully. thanks for being with us. news from afghanistan and on that soldier accused of killing 16 afghan civilians last weekend, a seattle attorney has be been hired to represent that soldier. the staff sergeant is from the seattle area and was asked to

treatment individual who has been taken into custody and we learned yesterday has left afghanistan. meanwhile the obama administration is saying that the u.s. course in afghanistan remains unchanged despite the demand by afghan president karzai for u.s. troops to leave more rural areas of afghanistan. and a new report out today of 525 page report into the investigation in the case against senator ted steven's who passed away in a plane crash in 2010, he was convicted in 2008. that conviction was overturned. this art showing evidence that prosecutors failed to disclose seriously damaging testimony and credibility of the government's key witness in that case. a response from the chair of the senate judiciary committee patrick leahy this afternoon. in a statement i expressed at the time to a number of people involved in the trial i had some real concerns that prosecutors were not meeting their discovery obligations. he went on to say i believe everybody before a court should have a fair trial. he and senator grassley will

join me in having a hearing on this matter. that statement from senator patrick leahy just a short while ago on the investigation in this new government report into trial against the late senator ted steven's. let's begin with our lead story and that's gas prices something we're feeling every time we go fumble. the president cycling through familiar themes promoting his record of increased domestic oil and gas production as well as stricter fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks as well as his call for ongoing investments into alternative sources of energy things like wind solar and biofuel. the president traveling to nearby largo's maryland just a motorcade drive away from washington, d.c. in the nation's capital where he said this. >> there is no such thing as a quick fix when it comes to high gas prices. there's no silver bullet. anybody who tells you otherwise isn't really looking for a solution.

they are trying to ride the political wave of the moment. usually the most common thing when you actually ask them is how is it you're going to get back to $2 a gallon gas. how will do you it. specifically what is your plan. and typically what you'll hear from them is if we just drilled more for oil then gas prices would immediately come down and all our problems would go away. that's usually the response. now, maryland, there are two problems with that answer. first of all, we are drilling. under my administration america is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. [ applause ] any time. that's a fact. that's a fact.

we quadrupled the number of operating oil rigs to a record high. i want everybody to listen to that. we have more oil rigs operating now than ever. that's a fact. we've approved dozens of new pipelines to move oil across the country. we announced our support for a new one in oklahoma that will help get more oil down to refineries on the gulf coast. over the last three years my administration has opened millions of acres of land in 23 different states for oil and gas exploration. [ applause ] offshore -- offshore i've directed my administration to open up more than 75% of our potential oil resources. that includes an area in the gulf of mexico we opened up a few months ago that could

produce more than 400 million barrels of oil. so do not tell me that we're not drilling. we're drilling all over this country. [ applause ] i guess there's a few spots where we're not drilling. we're not drilling on the national mall. [ laughter ] we're not drilling at your house. [ laughter ] right. i guess we could try to have like, you know, 200 oil rigs in the middle of the chesapeake bay. [ laughter ] well, that's the question. we are drilling at a record pace but we're doing so in a way that

protects the health and safety and the natural resources of the american people. [ applause ] all right. so that's point number one. if you start hearing this drill baby drill. drill, drill, drill. if you start hearing that again, just remember you got the facts. we're doing that. tell me something new. that's problem number one. here's the second problem. with what some of these politicians are talking about. there's a problem with a strategy that only relies on drilling and that is america uses more than 20% of the world's oil. if we drilled every square inch of this country, so we went to

your house and we went to the national mall, and we put up those rigs every where, we would still have only 2% of the world he's known oil reserves. let's say we missed something. maybe it's 3%. instead of 2. we're using 20. we have 2. now you don't need to be getting an excellent education at prince george's community college to know that we have a math problem here, right? [ applause ] i helped out sasha occasionally with her math homework. i know that if you got 2 and you got 20, there's a gap. [ laughter ] >> the president in largo, maryland discussing the energy issue before a crowd of students

from the community college in prince george's county. on monday the white house issued a progress report that essentially summarized its efforts to implement all of the above energy strategy. recent polls indicate the president has been hurt by higher gas prices. just this week a "new york times"/cbs news poll shows the president's overall job approval rating fell to 50% with 40% disapproving of his performance on dealing with economic issues. joining with us some perspective on this issue is daniel simmons. he's the director of regulatory and state affairs for the institute for energy research here in washington, d.c. thanks very much for being with us. >> sure thing. >> let's go through some of the basics. are we drilling more in the u.s.? >> are we drilling more in the u.s.? yes, we are. we're drilling more oil today than we have been for quite a while. we're producing more oil today than we have been at any time in the past eight years. when the president says that, is

that an accurate statement. where some of his critics, you know, take issue with the president is that production on federal lands which is what the president has much more control of slips from 2010 to 2007 and production on private land is really what is driving this increase in production. >> your point is there's always a lag time between when the president approves drilling and the actual drilling takes place, so many argue that what we're doing now was put in place during the bush administration. >> well not just the bush administration, the clinton administration. some of the -- there was some deepwater, some deepwater production that recently came online and that was as a result of leases issued during the clinton administration just because the lead times are so long when you're out in deepwater in the gulf. >> one of the quotes that's getting a lot of attention the president says the u.s. holds 2% of the world's oil reserves. is that accurate?

>> well, it's accurate in this sense. it's accurate -- the united states has 2% of the world's proved oil reserves. that doesn't mean we have 2% of the world's oil and that's the problem. "the washington post" did a fact check of this and called it a true but false statement which is we technically have 2% of the world's proved reserves. proved reserves is a very narrow definition. the securities exchange commission regulates this and that is what oil companies report as reserved. it's stuff that is oil that we currently have drilled for, that we have a really good idea that's there. it's not all the oil we have. we have far more oil than that. many of it is, much of it is off limit, many of it we can't access but the oil is in the ground but we don't have access to it. if we look at all the oil recoverable with current

technology we have about 1.4 trillion barrels not 20 billion. we have 20 billion of approved oil reserves. we have 1.4 trillion barrels that's recoverable, many times of what the amount of proved oil reserves are. >> you know the answer to this but if you ask most americans which is the nation's third largest oil-producing state many would not guess that it is north dakota. nbc's brian williams with an extensive look at the growth in north dakota as a result of oil exploration. what does that tell you? >> north dakota oil production, identify looked this up a few days ago, from january 2011 to january 2012, oil production in north dakota increased by 75%. i mean it is growing just incredibly rapidly. it can't sustain that kind of growth rate, but the amount of oil they are producing in north

dakota is truly impressive, especially the rapid increase. >> so the obvious question is why. what are they doing and what does that tell you about that part of the country, what's there >> they are using newer technology, it's i had drawlic fractu -- hydraulic fracturing. it is being able to use hydraulic fracturing and drilling together to access oil that -- they knew it was oil but tightly locked together troing by using i he ining hydraulic f during they can get this oil. there's more shale formation ages round the country. it's similar to the marcellus shale in pennsylvania and new york where they produce a lot of natural gas. so what that means is that we can be producing a lot more oil

and natural gas around the country in areas that we couldn't just a few years ago because of new technology. >> we're talking with daniel simmons with the institute for energy research. looking ahead as we move into the spring and summer in terms of prices right now in many parts of the country $4 a gallon or higher. what can we expect? >> continue the same thing. unless there is honestly unless there's bad economic news out of europe or unless the situation in iran is completely calmed down there's nothing in the short term that would drag down the price of gasoline, and that's, i think, that's the sad reality. we can't -- producing oil. we can produce more oil over time. we can truly have access to a lot more oil resources but nothing will change this short term picture. so, you know, hopefully the situation in the middle east, iran and syria will, you know,

calm down because otherwise we're going to be seeing high gas prices for quite a while. >> dan simmons is the director of regulatory and state affairs for institute for energy research. thank you very much for being with us here on c-span radio. >> thank you. >> this morning a story that got a lot of tension from london. reuters reported london will work on release of strategic stocks that could take place over the next several months. all of this in a bid to prevent gas prices from choking growth. this coming on the heels of two days of meeting between u.s. and british officials including president obama and prime minister david cameron. last night's state dinner, yesterday's session in the oval office. that brought some quick questions today to press secretary jay carney who refuted this reuters story. >> reports today that the president and prime minister cameron discussed tapping

strategic oil reserves. what's the status of the white house's attempt at that, the spr and are you having those kinds of discussions with other foreign leaders because obviously you want to do this with international concurrence. >> jim, the suggestion that energy issues were among the topics discussed by the british prime minister and the president should not be surprising. energy issues were among the topics discussed in the meetings that they had. it is inaccurate as was reported today that any kind of agreement was reached on a course of action, or that any kind of timetable associated with the course of action was agreed to. those reports are wrong. they are false. >> jay carney responding to that

reuters story that seemed to indicate that the u.s. and great britain were about to release some of the oil from the strategic reserves. by the way the daily briefing is available on our website as well as all our programming at c-span.org. this is "washington today." jeff session threatens to bring the senate to a grinding halt if the president does not renominate a republican member of the nuclear regulatory commission this summer. he raised concern the president won't allow the commissioner to be renominated. i'm not going to let that happen said senator sessions even if we have to bring the senate to a grinding halt. the republican from wyoming echoing senator sessions remarks. this coming on the heels avenue report that came out that was the topic of a session with barbara boxer. questioning the nrc economieser and discussing the timeline for these new safety rules that are

likely to be implemented by the nrc. here's more from today's hearing. >> chairman, the nrc staff has proposed two rulemakings to implement high priority safety recommendations. i'm very happy to hear everybody supported these. i mean it's very heartening to me personally. and one of those rules would require plans to have the ability to safely operate when they lose all electric power, a station blackout. another rule would require now operating procedures to address severe accidents. chairman when will the nrc finalize these rules? >> right now the station blackout rule, the first proposal what we call an advanced notice of rulemaking is due this week to be finalized and then to be released to the public. the emergency operating procedures is the second rule you referred to, an advance notice is also a plan for next

month. the station blackout rule, the mission has asked for that to be done in about 24 months from now. and that would put it somewhere in, i believe 2014 time frame. the second rule right now i think is on a much later schedule to be finalized closer to 2016 or sometime in 2016. so, i feel comfortable we're on a good track with the station blackout rule that's a high priority the commission has recognized that. i certainly do have concerns that the second rule will be a challenge for us to not only complete the rule itself but the implementations within the five years that i think the commission has laid out. again i think part of our work in the next couple of years is to figure out ways we can get this work done more timely. >> as i one it, the safety commission recommended that these all be done in five years, is that correct? >> the commission itself encouraged the efforts to get these things done within five years and we did have our

advisory committee on reactor safe guards to encourage some of the rulemakings to be accelerated. it's an important piece of the fukushima response. >> do you feel comfortable you're speaking for everyone when you say you're striving to meet that 2014 and 2016 date, you're striving. if not i just want to ask. let me put you on-the-spot because you can't speak for everyone. does anyone disagree that those two rules should, you should do everything in your power to implement the first one 2014, station blackout and the second one 2016? is there any dissent from that. okay. the nrc staff has stated that high priority safety recommendations should be implemented without delay. we talked about them, the nrc told staff to strive by 2016. so, i just want to make sure that you would keep us up to date, our committee on the

progress being made so that if there's slippage we would know about that. would do you that chairman and commissioners if you see things slipping. otherwise we'll assume it's on track unless you tell us. i don't want to be surprised and find out it's going take 12 years or 14 because that's what happened the last time they just after 9/11 the recommendations took i think ten years or more. >> chairman boxer if i could just add one of the areas where i do have some concern is with the efforts to re-examine the seismic hazards at the nuclear power plants. this is an effort right now that would probably push out to the earliest completion date around some time in 2017. the latest completion dates for the lower risk plants in 2019. so is that one that at this point does appear to be off target a little bit. and given the importance of seismic hazards and i think as the commissioner said, this is an area in which we recognize

that there is new information that tells us that the plants may not be designed to the right seismic standards. for this one to take so long is a district attorney me. >> another time and place and also i'll work with all of you, this is very concerning because in california we have updated reports that are not good, that say there's bean lot of changes. dew point to add something? >> i would like to add something. first of all, i agree with the chairman's statement, but there would be a lot of activity related to seismic upgrades. and right now the focus is on the plants east of the rocky mountains where the usgs has issued new seismic data, and the stop would prioritize in terms of risk, the activities there,

so a lot of it would have been accomplished before these dates after 15 years. it's that -- according to the staff and my understanding, it's the plants with low risk that have to do upgrades that will take longer. and the california plants, by the way, according to what i know today will complete their upgrades before the five years. >> good. just some of the testimony earlier in the day with senator barbara boxer. with the nrc commissioners taking questions on u.s. reactor safety. one year after the earthquake and tsunamis hit japan including damaging and destroying that nuclear power plant. the hill news paper also reporting on the navy's push to develop biofuels to run its fleet of planes and war ships which some say including senator john mccain could devolve into a

solendra situation. they were comparing that with the white house sinking $35 billion in loan guarantees. senator mccain has been hammering away with this at questions to the navy secretary over the navy's continued investment into biofuel technology. another senator questioning this approach. he's a member of the committee, the senate armed services committee. this was earlier today on capitol hill. >> on the mandated changes in your 50-50 program on the field that you would be purchasing just a minute ago and mr. secretary in your statement you said every time the barrel of a cost goes up a dollar it increase fuel costs. in 2012 due to the political unrest and so forth -- well now if do you the math on this

thing, it appears to me, senator mccain mentioned the purchase of 20,000 gallons of the algae fuel that was $424 a gallon. i assume that's all behind us. that was an experiment and that's gone. what we're doing now is talking about the cost of the 50-50 blend. the 50-50 blend, as i under it and i'm taking the figures from you guys, would be -- it would be $15 a gallon. now your jp-5 as i know from my own purchase is somewhere between $4 and $5 a gallon. you're talking about an increase of about $10 for each gallon. is my math off here? >> no, sir. that's exactly correct and it's, again, a test amount. it's 450,000 gallons of biofuel that we bought to do a

demonstration at the rim of the pacific exercise in july off the coast of hawaii, using surface ships and aircraft off our carrier there. but the whole point of this is to establish a competitive industry and the navy will not be buying commercial quantity of biofuels or anything else that is not commercially competitive in price. but it takes a little while to get and there one of the things the navy can bring is a market for these fuels. >> but the federal government that i heard, i thought it was a quote from you, you'll need 330 million gallons a year of alternative fuels to meet your goal of 50%. is that correct >> yes, sir. >> that would be 50%. you're talking 660 million

gallons. you apply your $10 -- >> i'll apply $10 to that. when we get to that level it will have to be the alternative fuel left to be competitively priced with fossil fuel that success blended with. >> okay. not to get into that right now but for the record i want to you send me what you just now said and send me the documentation. that's not the way i read it. that's all right. will do you that? >> yes, i'll be happy to do that. >> all right. >> that's the information governor of mississippi now the navy secretary testifying before the armed services committee with questions by senator inhofe. we recent featured him on c-span's q and a program on sunday night. can you watch that interview any time at c-span.org. this is "washington today." in some other news today on

wall street the dow was up 58, nasdaq up 15 and s&p up 8. fewer people saw unemployment benefits last week adding to find that the job market is strengthening. applications for aid dropping 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 351,000 according to the labor department. when applications dropped consistently below 375,000 it usually signals that hiring is strong enough to lower the unemployment rate. to the chagrin of some democrats it's being reported senate majority leader harry reid moved to limit amendments on a house jobs act for fwroed did youral votes next tuesday. only two aemts expected to be offered. another democrat said i'm fearful of that. he thinks it opens up receives to stock scams.

the senate should have worked its will and approved a deeply flawed house bill. the agriculture department says starting next fall schools can stop feeding students a common ammonia treated ground beef filler that's been dubbed pink slime by critics. the department will give school systems a choice of a filler or less bulk ground beef without it. u.n. secretary ban ki-moon saying well over 8,000 people have died in syria over the past year due to the government's violent repression of the uprising against president assad. he raised the death toll from 7,500 now to 8,000 in a statement today marking the first anniversary of the uprising. he said that the brutal repression by syrian authorities is continuing unabated and calls the status quo indefensible. convicted former governor rod blagojevich of illinois, a democrat, going to