circle signed a protocol that said we lp share our information to make sure whatever does happen in the arctic is something that is done in the most safe and the most sporns way. and so there's a lot that is happening up in alaska. let me say just, spend a few minutes speaking about renewable energy, because i know both byron dorgan and bob bennett were champions of this, and it's true whether i'm in billford, utah or whether i'm anywhere throughout north dakota and see a great potential for wind energy in those states. when i became secretary of interior, i walked into an office on january 21, 2009, where there was no attention and no focus on renewable energy at all. notwithstanding legislation, which we had all authored together make sure that renewable energy became part of that american portfolio of

energy. nothing was happening. nothing was happening. no permit had been issued. knock was going on in solar, in g geosolar for the plans of the country. the leadership of steve black and bob, director of the blm and so many others who have helped us, we have made that a huge priority for the united states of america, and we have permitted 29 projects up to this point in time. of large scale solar, wind and geothey were many projects on the public balance of the united states. and some of those projects are not only constructed but improving energy to the grid right now. we have a lot more on the way as well. our hope is that by -- our hope is by the time we get to the end of 2012, that we will have permitted over 10,000 megawatts

of power on the public lands of the united states of america. and we haven't stopped there just on the onshore. we'd live and effort that has included the governors all along the arctic, where we are working with them to map out and have mapped out significant potential for offshore wind development along the atlantic, and are doing the same thing in other places, including the state of oregon where we believe there is huge energy potential for offshore wind. just at few days ago, as part of what we did in the state of massachusetts and its offshore area, we mapped out an area which is a preferred wind energy development zone, and there are already are developers that propose the construction of some 4,000 megawatts of wind just off the coast of massachusetts. there are differences, but the -- interests in terms of offshore wind development in the united states is not much different in its intensity, when you go to rhode island or to maine or when you go north

carolina or any other states along the atlantic. so there's lots of geophysical realities that make the possibility of offshore wind from the atlantic a very significant component of the energy portfolio of the united states. so i'm proud of the work that we've done in the real world, in terms of standing up, renewable energy, and making it a reality for the united states. now, some may say that in these times where there's an election under way, that maybe there's nothing that the congress can do to help us move forward and to make the real world of energy even a better reality than we have today. well, i beg to disagree, because the fact is, there are things that this congress could do. and i'll throw out two simple things. one --ics why don't we have organic legislation that institutionalized what we're doing in the offshore

information arena? organizely, within the department of interior? mms when james watts signed the secretary laureate creating mms in 1981, he did it just by virtue of the authority of the outer continental shelves live act and the secretary of the interior. it's with some authority i use some 30-plus years later to reorganize the department into a bureau of energy and other components of what we're doing. three years plus ago i went in front of the house, the senate energy committee and said i wanted to have organic legislation for what we were doing. it would be very simple to do. could be passed out of the house under their suspension of the rules procedures. could be brought to the floor of the u.s. senate. it ought to be one of those things where you could get unanimous consent out of the u.s. senate to institutionalize the kororganization needed for

united states to move forward with the safe development of offshore energy. that would be a very simple thing to do, and yet it appears to be a do nothing congress at this point in time. they are not willing to do that. because they don't want anything to happen. it's the -- the world of very fails and politics of today. it says doing nothing is better than doing something, even though it may be a small measure. in my view, it would be a very important measure because the realitisy that americans know and i believe we all agree, whether you're in the coverageation community or in the oil and gas industry that having safe and responsible production of our oil and gas in the oceans of america is something that is in fact very important. said something that could be done. it wouldn't take a whole lot of leadership to dop that. the second thing that i believe

this congress could do, and it surely should not take a lot of political chutzpah to do it, because you have the u.s. chamber of commerce. you have the national association of manufacturers. you have the national governors association. you have the industry. you have the environmental community behind it, and that's to simply extend the production tax credit and manufacturing tax credit for wind energy. for wind energy. when i say we've doubled the amount of renewable information in the last three years. it hasn't happeneded by itself. it's happened because we had policies in place creating wind energy development to take root in the united states of america, and from the dakotas to utah to texas, you see that wind energy going up. and we know for sure if a -- if

it doesn't get startedics the production lines and products lines needed to continue this effort are going to shut down. that's 37,000 jobs that are going to be lost. it wouldn't take that much, really, of political chutzpah, if you want to live in the real world as opposed to the fairy tale world of energy, to extend those tax credits. so that, then, we can make sure that wep continue on the right track of renewable energy for the united states. so those are simple things. now, i don't expect in these times we're going to have a robust energy bill in the way that we had robust energy bills when byron dorgan and bob bennett worked at night to help those thing s happen. that that may happen in the next year. and many elements of that that have to be debated. one of the elements i thought of, importance how we move

forward with the clean energy standard. it's amazing to me when you look at places like texas and i wo and so many others, when you have those states, conservative states, and democratic states, progressive states, republican states, saying that this is the right thing for their states. now, i know there are regional difference, but i also know we've had many conversations about how you can deal with the regional differences on a renew -- i think it can be done but i don't expect it will get done in this political time frame that we're in, but even though we can't get something like that done, for sure there ought to be no reason why we can't keep moving forward with renewable energy revolution we're seeing here in moesin ame. i'm hopeful there will be things the members of congress will do. the plaed put together a simple

to-do list of matters that have been supported on the bipartisan basis in the past, and our hope is that there is action on that to-do. that there is action in particular. thank you very much. the secretary indicated he will take some questions. we have a couple of microphones. if you want to raise your hands, first i'll call on you. let's get at microphone over here. microphone way in the back. go ahead. >> i actually had a kwep for your former colleague. she didn't have a chance to get to. i'll ask you instead, particularly since you were a senator when the policy was formulated. >> steve higley. >> steve. >> the, there are obviously some big problems with the federal renewable fuels standard.

a couple of the largest being the continued lack of availability of commercial produced ethanol and the second being the e-10 blend wall. and those are two problems that we're staring in the face that obvious obviously aren't going to go away. i hate to steal your line of fairy tale versus reality, i'm going to because i like it. how do we resolve those issues going forward? >> we are strong proponents of buy owe fu biofuels and making sure what we're doing, r & d perspective and increasing the amounts of biofuels that can go into the oil and gas mix. i remember well working on the formula that we have in place now so that we were not too dependent on corn and so i remember putting the caps that we put in for the current rfs in

place when that legislation was passed. we have as of the actions that epa has taken are at a point where we are huge users today of ethanol here in this country. but we also believe that there are limb toiits to what we can with respect to based ethanol and we have invested a significant amount of our time and energy looking at the vast biofuel technology. so just in the last year or so alone, there are now four b biorefineries being stood up in the country and we're looking at other kinds of cellulosic materials to be able to continue the nuclear energy program, but my colleague, secretary wilsack were here from the department of agriculture, he would tell you this is one of those things we will continue to work on, aened

and it has a very significant chapter in our energy portfolio for the united states of america. >> this gentleman over here. >> good morning, mr. secretary. i'm larry bory, ldb and associates and a member of a society board. first of all, thank you for your leadership on the gulf oil crisis. i think the president did the right thing, a and i really applaud the way you brought all the agencies together, and that's my question, that is, the coordination of policy between interior energy transportation on alternative fuels for motor transpags. we. >> now have diesel, clean diesel, locomotives. the -- big trucks looking at compressed natural gas, and yet in -- in four-wheelers, in diesel and compressed natural gas for commercial --

commercially available automobiles we seem to be lagging behind a lot of other places, such at alberta in europe. what is the administration doing to attempt to work with the auto industry to coordinate the use of alternative fuels? >> it's a good question, and let me first respond by how we ork in this administration. from the very beginning i became secretary of interior we put together and energy team, and knowing that i have a significant role in that, because of the resource which i oversee, but also knowing that steven chu as secretary of energy, has a huge role in terms of the research and development and investments that are made there and secretary vilsack in agriculture because of a whole host of other things and ms. jackson because of efficiency and the environmental issues and ray lahood because of the transportation demand for fuels.

so we've worked as a team, and it is a good team, and we share our ideas, and we guelph the programs with the president for the president's administration. so you will find all of these components that i have spoken about this morning set out in the blueprint for energy that we have talked about over the years. so all of these components are included in there and it's a manifestation of the work of the energy team that the president has put together. with respect to natural gas and compressed natural gas and what we are doing there, we are hopeful that we will continue to see an increased usage and an increased demand for natural gas in this country. there is no doubt that because of hydraulic fracking and hoar sonltal drilling and a whole

soviet of technological innovations that are occurring, that the production of natural gas in this country is one of the renaissance things that has happened in the energy world for this country. but right now, you all know it here, because you know what the price of natural gas is versus the price of oil. the problem is we don't have the infrastructure to do everything that we should be doing with respect to the usage of this very abundant domestic energy resource that we have. so the president has pushed very hard to try to work with the private sector and with secretary lahood and the transportation community on the conversion of vehicles over to natural gas. and so our -- i mean, you've heard the -- the plans that are out there in terms of how much oil could, how it could be saved if in fact we could have the conversion of vehicle fleets over to natural gas. so there are many companies that

have already embraced that. the president has visited those facilities. we've been secelebrating what ty have been doing. u.p.s. has already transformed its fleet over to natural gas and in the long haul transportation, we do need additional infrastructure. those are places where if we did have an energy bill, there would be additional things that the congress could do to help us take advantage of this very significant discovery we have with respect to natural gas. all the statistics that i have seen from the experts tell us that we have about 100-year supply of natural gas here in the united states. and the president even before he was president was out talking about the importance of natural gas as a fuel for the united states of america. in our early conversations in 2009 we were very much involved in trying to move forward whip the potential construction of

the alaska natural gas pipeline. today, because of the economics of natural gas, the companies themselves have said, you know, hold on. we have to take another look at it. but in that time frame, that's happened with respect to the projections on natural gas development within the lower 48. it's very immense. and we believe that that natural gas future is going to be with us for a long time and so it is important for us to have the kinds of policies in place and the kind of promotion that we're doing to have the kind of conversion that you speak about. >> last question. yes. >> thank you very much, secretary salazar, for speaking to us about many different issues facing our energy future. one of the issues you talked about was specific to the arctic and possible shelves drilling this summer and i was wondering if you could speak a little bit more about safety in relation to

that possible drilling, and specifically if, how you're going to ensure that the shelves blow out preventers will be able to be used effectively and in the arctic extreme conditions. >> what is your name? >> leah donahay. >> one of my plaintiffs. [ laughter ] they're suing me, in other words. that's okay. that's okay. nothing that happens in interior is done without controversy. let me just say this. it's a very important question. and it is a very important issue for the united states and for its future. i can absolutely assure you that neither this president nor me would ever be in a position where we would authorize anything to move forward in the arctic without being completely

satisfied that it's going to be done in a way that's will not damage our environment. so let me just say that up front. second of all, it's also important for those follows what happens in the arctic that no final decisions have been made, because there are still approvals that need to happen before shell is given the green light to move forward with what could be the potential drilling of a select number of wells in this area, but those decisions are not yet final. third, as a factual matter, it's important for people to also remember that this is not the first time that oil and gas exploration activities occur in either area. so 38 wells have already been drilled up there in other times by other people, by other companies, and those exploration

activities took place at a time when there was not the kind of oversight, frankly, that is in place today. today. where every i is being dotted and every t is being crossed. fifth, we see a lot happening in the arctic today as the future unfolds before our eyes. it's a place where the pounding or the dust said that we need to take a look and understand the opportunities. the arctic is so far away, few people paid attention to the arctic for a long time. that has dramatically changed over the last three years. i spoke about the trips taken to greenland and to canada.

i will be in the 12 countries that do the counterparts and the interior that do work in the oceans of america. there will be a group there that will be focused on the arctic. we know russia is moving forward with a very significant expiration program. we know norway and its future is looking at the arctic. we know canada has a huge interest in what's happening in the arctic and they are planning on moving forward. we ought not to be left behind. the united states ought not to be left behind. finally i would say to you is that if the wells are drilled there, yes it will be done with every safety precaution that the

available so it's intense and will be deployed. we as americans should not be afraid of finding out what the resource values are there. i think often what happens in the world of energy and it relates back to the part of the conversation that i started out this speech with, we live in a world of fairy tales and then there is the real world of energy. in the real world of energy, it's important to have the best information and the best science. how can you have the conversation about places like the virginia or the atlantic when the information we have is so outdated we don't know what's there. no information on the

geophysical realities and they have been developed for decades and decades women ought never be afraid of information. the arctic will be a major part of our work as we prepare over the months ahead. it may occur later on in the summer. we will be watching it with all hands on deck. >> tonight espn president john skip or the network's expansion to media platforms. the chief national correspondent on the ways technology changed cnn and cox business senior vice president phil meeks and the small business focus on the communicators tonight at 8:00 on c-span 2.

eric holder testifies after the hearing to consider a contempt citation against the most senior law enforcement officer. it comes as part of operation fast and furious where the government allowed weapons to be smuggled with mexico. you can watch live coverage at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. on wednesday, jpmorgan chase ceo jamie diamond testifies before the banking committee about the two billion trading loss. live coverage on c-span and c-span radio. house financial services committee will hold the hearing on the public policy implications of the trading loss on tuesday, june 19th. live on c-span 3 and c-span radio. david maraniss visited places

bike kenya and kansas to examine the president's family tree. book tv will give a preview including the trip to kenya with the author in january 2010. join us at 6:00 p.m. eastern and later at 7:30, your phone calls e-mails and tweets for david maraniss on book tv. >> a house subcommittee renewed the 2008 fisa amendment acts to spy on foreign nationals. a former homeland adviser to and an official at the aclu are among the witnesses. last month the supreme court agreed to hear a legal challenge to the law in the next turn. the law itself sunsets at the end of the year. . >> the subcommittee will be in

order. they examine the fisa act of 2008 set to expire at the end of the year. foreign intelligence act was to provide procedures for the domestic collection of foreign intelligence. in the 40 years since fisa's enactment, technologies have changed dramatically and revolutionized the transmission of international communications. the shift from wireless satellite to fiber optic wire communications alter the manner in which foreign communications are transmitted. the use of wire technology, to transmit a phone call that takes place overseas at the unintended consequence of requiring the government to obtain an individualized fisa court order to monitor foreign communications by non-u.s. persons. in 2008, congress passed and the president signed the bipartisan fisa amendments that update

foreign intelligence laws the it permits the attorney general and the director of national intelligence to target persons reasonably located outside the u.s. to acquire foreign intelligence information. the act requires prifr court approval of all government surveillance using these authorities including approval of the government's targeting and mine myselfation procedures. the fisa amendments act strengthens civil liberties for u.s. citizens by requiring the government to obtain an individualized and target them anywhere in the world to a squire information. foreign surveillance under the fisa amendments act is subject to extensive oversight by the administration in congress. every 60 days, the justice department and director of national intelligence conduct on sight reviews of surveillance

conducted pursuant to the fisa act. the attorney general conduct detailed assessments of court-approved targeting and mine myselfation procedures and provide the assessments to congress twice a year. the administration is required to submit to intelligence committees the copy of any fisa court order, opinion, or decision and the pleadings used in other mem rand of law relating to a construction or interpretation of any provision of fisa. the obama administration supports reauthorization of the fisa act for five years. the ni james clapper and attorney general have identified reauthorization of the act as the top legislative priority of the intelligence community and are urging congress to reauthorize the act without amendment. without objection, a february 8th letter from the director and

general and a march 26th letter from director clapper will be made part of the record. hearing no objections so ordered. foreign terrorists remain committed to the direction of our country and the methods of communication are constantly evolving. it is essential that the intelligence community has the necessary tools to detect and disrupt such attacks. we have a duty to ensure that the intelligence community can gather the information they need to protect our country and citizens. i look forward to hearing more about this issue and thank all of our witnesses for participating in today's hearing. it is my pleasure to recognize for his opening statement, the ranking member of the subcommittee, the gentlemen, mr. scott. >> i want to thank you for holding the hearing on the amendment act of 2008. the act established some parameters for the secret and in my view,