and another took me to the res irvags. they said, we have a problem here. the government's not working, no permits are being issue and no oil and gas distribution is being taken place. we set up a permanent process to try to break through a bureaucracy that simply wasn't working at the end of the last administration. today when you go out to the ft. burkehold reservation, 200 permits have been gimp. in an indian country alone where there are millions and millions of acres of potential development, the oil development and production just on indian lands has doubled, doubled in the last three years, and so for those who say we're not erbing permits, frank frankly, there's something wrong. how has this obama administration improved oil

gansd prices in the u.s. and is it helping the american families? >> as i said in my comments, we are producing more oil than at any time in 2003 here in the united states of america. those are just the facts. those are just the facts. and more gas is being produced in the united states than at any time in our history, and whelp one looks aet the question of production from public lands where we have critics who say we aren't doing enough on public lands, we are now produce 13g% more oil off of our public lands than was being produced three years ago. so we're doing as much as we can to make sure we're implementing all of the above energy strategy. at the end of the day, we all know that we cannot drill our way to energy independence, and those who have tried that approach in the past frankly are

responsible for the failed energy security policies o the united states in the last 40 years because they have nod taken the kind of approach that president obama and we are taking, which is an "all of the above" nerenergy approach, know we need all of the sources of energy to power the american economy. >> gasoline exports are up. squeezes prices and keeps prices high, shouldn't oil serve americans first? >> well, american oil is serving americans first because the oil that we're producing here is what we are using to power our economy from the gulf of mexico alone. today about 30% of all of the oil and natural gas we produce in the united states comes from the gulf of mexico, and it is consumed here in the united states. so the energy that we are create

ing here in the united states is partly responsible due to fact alone we imported less than a million barrels a day than we had in the prior year. a million barrels a day. so the energy that is being produced here is, in fact, being used here in the united states. on the issue of gas prices, as everybody here in this audience knows, it is determined through global economics no one has the abili ability, not even harry potter, to wave a magic want and say we're going to have gas prices $259 or $2.50 or $3. it doesn't work that way. it doesn't happen that way, and that really is the point that i hope most americans understand, that there's no silver bullet, there's no magic want. and if we're going to find our way to addressing the -- one of

the very most important fundamental questions of the united states, you need to have an energy framework and energy policy in place like the one president obama and his team have put into place, and that's an "all of the above" energy strategy that, yes, understand oil and gas is part of our energy future. renewables like solar wind and geothermal, opening up a new chapter that had been closed for such a long time on nuclear, biorefineries where we now have the first four of those commercial refineries where we are going to see advanced bio fuels. but it's an all of the above energy strategy, and that's what we need to do is to stay the course in order to get us to a place where the american people are not subjected to the pain of the ups and downs that we've seen in the united states for the last 40 years. >> are gas prices out of control? will they ever reseed. >> we had someone here who said

they visited greece and it was at $9 per gallon. are we headed in that direction? >> you know, we do not control the price of oil. i check the price of oil every day because i care and i know that it is a -- it's a painful time for the american people. i don't think anyone can speculate with the oil prices and gas price because they're set on the global economy. what we're seeing today are implementation of unrest in the middle east and iran which disrupt the markets and allow the futures markets to play on some of what they see the unrest around the world. secondly, the huge demand that you start seeing in places like china and india and brazil where you have lots of people who want to be just like people here in the united states. they want to have their vehicle, and they want to be able to drive their vehicle.

so the unsettled nature of the conflicts in the middle east and what's going on with the global economy is really what has led to the price hikes that we have seen here today. so where it will all end, no one knows, but i -- what i do know is this. that the -- all of the above energy framework is what we need to stay the course on in order for us to be able to avoid the kinds of upheavals that we have seen since the formation of opec, since the gulf war i, gulf war ii, and so many other events that have trns spired since the early 1970s. >> i'm told that this is breaking news. the justice department makes its first arrest in the bp oil spill. a former bp engineer. do you expect more people to be brought to justice?

>> it's breaking news. i've been up here with you. let me just say that the united states has been committed from day one to make sure that we are holding bp and others accountable for what happened in the gulf of mexico. the department of justice, obviously, is involved in the criminal end of that. we're involved in the civil end of that with the justice department as well. and what i can assure the people of this country is that attorney general holder and our team who has been working on making sure that bp and other companies are held accountable will, in fact, be held accountable. there are laws and regulations that are on the books. as our reports have shown, including the joint investigation between our department and homeland security, there were, in our view, a number of laws and regulations that were, in fact, broken.

so people and companies will be held -- will be held accountable. >> bp had at least two criminal felony convictions for safety and environmental crimes and is facing more for the 2010 gulf oil spill, yet your department continues to allow the company to drill in u.s. waters. should there be a three strikes and you're out policy for companies just as there are for individuals? >> our approach is to hold companies accountable, making sure that they are meeting the standards that we have imposed. if you look at what happens in the oil and gas world, especially in the deeper waters, we have the approach which is essentially based on a three-legged stool. one of them is prevention. nobody wants to see blowouts like the one we saw at ma canada before. the second is containment. if something like the ma con da well blowout were to happen again, we'd want to make sure we

could move in swiftly and the situation could be contained. the third is oil spill response. if you have an oil spill, we want to make sure we have the ability to be able to respond effectively to an oil spill, so working with industry, with companies that have now been formed like the well incorporation in helix, we have made a huge progress on preparedness and oil spill response and containment and led largely by our agencies and the ocean energy advisory committee, which i have put into place. we're moving forward to make sure we have good laws which can be followed, and we'll keep people accountable for them. now, with respect to the question on bp, our expectation is bp will be held accountable for what it has done in the past. in the future bp will be held accountable to meeting standards that we promulgate through the rules and the mer mitting processes through the department of interior.

>> what would you do differently if there was another oil spill? >> you know what? we would move with the same sense urgency. production in our oceans that -- depth of 5,000 feet, 10,000 feet are not risk-free. there were always risks there. but the components of the plan that were put into place would give us the ability to respond very quickly, because now you have for example caps that have -- containment caps that are readily available that could come in and could be used to stop a well like -- that would be an out of control well like the macoda well. so we're much better prepared today than we were before. part of our effort also has been to try to make sure that the lessons that we have learned here are lessons that the rest of the world can also look at

and hopefully follow because the oil and gas world is a global industry. so it's happening today in the presalt soft of brazil, what other countries are doing in the arctic circle, what's happening offshore in nigeria and other places around africa, there are huge reserves of oil brks new the very deep water. it's important that the standards and efforts that we have here under way in the united states are also learned by other nations. and so we have worked to make sure that we are engaged the international world to assure that the kind of disaster that bp oil spill brought to the nation is not the kind of disaster that we will see again. >> since the deepwater horizon disaster, are you being more strict on denying drilling

permits based on safety and environmental concerns. >> yes. we have new sets of regulations that have been put into place. the permit reviews are rigorous. we make sure that any companies operating in the united states is complying with the rules that we have set up. so we're in a much better place today than we were before the maconda well blew up in the gulf of mexico. >> how confident are you that shell's planned drilling in arth tick waters in alaska will go forward this summer now that its oil spill response plans have been approved? >> we are still in the process of moving forward with the evaluations to drill. we'll make those decisions soon and in a timely manner.

if the decision is made not to move forward, it would be because of the fact that we don't find compliance with the requirements that we have imposed at the department of interior through the bureau of safety environmental enforcement and through the bureau of ocean energy management, two agencies which i created. if on the other hand the decision is made to move forward with the expiration of those arctic seas, it will be done under the most cautious and watched for exploration program in the history of the world. we need to recognize that we have already seen close to 30 exploratory wells. in prior times they've been drilled into the bullford and krukt seas. what would happen is we would be gathering additional information

about the arctic seas so we as the american public, american government can make decisions about how best to move forward. >> senator david vitter blocked a pay raise for you because he said you weren't approving enough oil drilling permits. do you believe this was an attempt at extortion? >> you know, senator vitter and i came to the senate at the same time in 2004. i don't know what his motives are, but i can just say to anybody who's watched that debate that i don't do this job because of the money i get paid. i do this job because it is singularly the best job of the united states of america on this cabinet and i enjoy fixing problems for the american people, and we have made tremendous progress in the last three years, and so that's what i focus on every day.

>> the interior department has been promises regulations for months but the rules have yet to materialize. what ease the status of these regulations and why is it taking so long for them to be released? >> natural gas is a very important component of america's energy future. the president has endorsed natural gas even during -- in the campaign of 2008 when he spoke about the importance of trying to move forward with the alaska natural gas pipeline and the meetings i had early on in the administration to move forward with that agenda, so we are strong believers in the future of natural gas and it's a way to power our economy. we know and believe we have a supply which is an american supply and frankly not as expensive as oil today, cl could power the economy of the united states for the next 100 years. so we will move forward and continue to cheerlead and push

forward for a robust natural gas agenda for the united states. now, at the same time as we move forward with the natural gas agenda for the u.s., it's important that people understand that unless we do it safely and responsible, we could essentially commit the achilles' heel in terms of the domestic energy supply. so the common sense rules and they're very common sense rules that we are putting forward are the ones which they have held hearings on all over the country and tribal consultations, and they will make sure there's disclosure of fluids so people know what's injected into the underground. it seems to me that's common sense. it will involve wellboring integrity so you don't have contamination for water drinking supplies. it will involve making sure that the water that comes back is full backwater, that there are monitoring requirements with

respect to all of that. but the finality of those rules has not yet been achieved. we are in the process of working through the final details of all that. but i would note that we're not the only ones that have been involved in making sure that hydraulic fracturing is one that can be done in a safe way and that has the support of the potentially affected public. if you look at the state of colorado, we now have a new set of rules that year disclosure. if you look at the state of wyoming, one's a democratic governor, the other is a republican governor of wyoming. they've moved forward with a common sense set of hydraulic fracturing rules. so we will move forward with a common sense set of rules once we complete the refinement of those rules, which director abbie and assistant secretary mark and others have been working on. >> we're almost out of time, but

before asking the last couple of questions we have a couple of housekeeping matters to take care of. first i'd like to remind all of you about our upcoming luncheon speakers ochl may 4, mark rizzo, general manager of the washington nalgsales. may 30th, anna marie sla vez, chief executive officer of the girl executes of the usa talking about the 100 years of girl scouting anded on june 4, gerald r. ford journalism awards with chris mathews will be here at our club. second, i'd like to present our guest with our traditional mnpc mug. [ applause ] >> and a couple of quick last questions. do you known when the washington monument will reopen for visitors? >> we're working on it very hard, and i think it will be maybe a year or so out by the time that the construction takes

place. >> since you once said you didn't want to be in politics, do you sometimes wish you didn't go beyond that one year? >> i think my family might have the opinion that i would have been home more than i am if i had. gone into the public world, but i will say this. at the end of the day when i speak withal ison and debbie and teresa, the fact is we have so much to celebrate in terms of what the united states stands for in the world and what we stand for here in our own country, and i was just back home celebrating my mother's 90th birthday, nine decades, and she's had a tough last 10, 12 years, and she had smile on her face. and think back about her generation and how wonderful they were she at the age of 19 found a way to get on the train to come work here in washington, d.c. at the war department for five years. my father served as a staff

sergeant in that war and required us to make sure we buried him in his uniform of ward war ii because he was so optimistic of what this country could do. so i think in these great times of division and polarization in our world, that we ought to harken back to that generation that did so much and gave us the opportunity to become really the beacon and the hope of opportunity for all of america but all of humanity. and that really is so much of what hangs in the balance today is we deal with people who are wanting to deal with the imaginary world and unrail world of politics and then those of us in the trenches who are trying to make the world a better place. so the answer to my question is i'm proud of the decisions i made and i'm very proud of my state of colorado who elected me twice to certain as the attorney general of that state and who elected me, yes, as a u.s.

senator and who beat pete in that election in 2004. >> how about a round of applause for our speaker. thank you all for coming today. aisle also like to thank the national press club staff including institution and broadcast center. finally here he's a reminder that you can find more information about the national press club on our website and if you'd like to get a copy of today's program, police check out our website at www.pressclub.org. thank you. we're adjourned.