expected to debate these bills. they return for business at 10:00 a.m. and we have it life on cspan. on the next "washington journal," we'll discuss the president's executive actions on guns with bradley burn of alabama and donald payne of new jersey. also, david french talks about his national review article titled rise of isis. about the rules of enganlment for u.s. forces in iraq and syria. "washington journal" is live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on cspan. here's a look at some of our featured programs this weekend on american history tv on cspan 3. next tuesday, president obama will deliver his last state of the union address to a joint session of congress. this saturday and sunday, beginning at 1:00 p.m. eastern, will feature four state of the union speeches by former presidents during their last year in office. on saturday, it's president carter followed by president

reagan. and on sunday, president george h.w. bush, followed by president clinton. lynn miranda ak cements the george washington book surprise essential achievement award and sunday at 10:00, we'll look back to the 1984 presidential campaign and a debate between agent candidates in iowa. >> with whom we elect to replace that man, has to have the trust and confidence of the american people and it has to be on matters spoken in public and private. private promises and public statements for the american people being the same and has to be for all our people. >> for our complete schedule, go to cspan.org. cspan takes you on the road to the white house and into the classroom. this year, our student cam documentary contest asks students to tell us what issues

they want to hear from the presidential candidates. follow cspan's road to the white house coverage and get all the details about our student cam contest at cspan.org. american petroleum institute president jack gerard delivered statements. afterwards he answered questions from reporters. this runs about an hour and 40 minutes. >> good afternoon, everyone. thank you for joining us at our annual state of american energy event at the reagan center. you just heard jack gerard talk about the opportunities from the american model for jobs, reducing our emissions, and strengthening our energy security, our national security. so let me now present jack gerard to take your questions, and let me just remind you if

you could please identify yourself and your news organizations. we have about 80 folks from around the country in the top news organizations here in person and about 80 who are calling in from around the country. so with that, let me introduce jack gerard, api's president and ceo. >> thank you, eric. thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us today. my apologies for my voice. i'm not sure how much longer it is going to last, but we appreciate you being here today. let me just say as we begin let me open it up to questions. we believe as we talked about earlier in our vote for energy rollout we'll be doing this election cycle once again. we want to talk about facts. we want to talk about the future. we want to talk about the opportunities we have in this country. we like to refer to it as the u.s. model. we create jobs, we become energy secure as the nation while reducing carbon emissions. it's pretty significant what's

taken place in this country. unpredictable just 10, 12 years ago. with that, let me open it up and take your questions. eric, i'll let you identify. >> penny. thank you for taking our questions. >> you bet. >> in paris when they had the climate change discussions, there were scientists there reported saying the only way to achieve the true goals of climate change is to eliminate fossil fuels completely. can you comment on that, please? >> the experts will tell you by 2040 80% of the energy resource for the united states will continue to be fossil fuels. we lead the world in carbon reductions. i think you're all well aware of that, and we're going that today because of fossil fuel production in vast quantities that's made it competitive. it's allowed it to be used and we're continuing to improve the

environment. as we look around the world today, this won't happen overnight. we need to look at the science and the data. the science today shows us that natural gas is a key opportunity to further improve environment. i would suggest one of the things we should look at is how do we expedite lng export opportunities in the united states. we have a case study. there are those who try to ignore the case study, some of who deny the case study. the reality is we leading the world and how did we get there. that's the simple point we're trying to make. as you look and we build on the success we have to date, we believe we can deal with the challenge of carbon, but we can also do it other ways other than those driven purely by political ideology. >> hi. i'm marilyn with npr. >> yes, marilyn. >> my question is about the conflicts in the middle east. your typical thinking is that

when there's so much rising tension it should be driving oil prices higher and yet that really hasn't been the case. how do you explain how these problems between iran and saudi arabia and all the troubles in syria have not resulted in much higher prices? >> well, i think it's the american energy renaissance as the key driver in that. marilyn, as we talked about earlier, as you look around the world today, the geopolitics of energy has changed significantly over the last decade. the united states is now the world's number one producer of oil and natural gas. so it's the fundamentals of the law of supply and demand taking out a lot of the risk we have seen historically. why? because what's happening is the market is looking at that situation at unrest and they're saying, well, it could have an impact within those producing nations, but there's alternatives today. the united states being one. our production in the united

states today is around 90 million barrels a day. that's almost doubled over the last five or six years. so the global market today is very different. those who had significant influence over global pricing if you talk to analysts will tell you that dynamic has shifted and is changing. i think once again the market reflects that over the past couple days as the unrest has continued to heighten, as the tensions increase. the market isn't moving. the market is basically showing that there are alternatives out there now for that energy. it's very significant what's happening. >> thanks for doing this. coral davenport. >> how are you? >> i'm good. what role do you anticipate playing in terms of talking to 2016 candidates? are you advising any of them? have they reached out to you?

where are we going to see your voice in this campaign? >> this campaign i hope what you'll see is we'll be talking to all the candidates regardless of political party, regardless of energy conversation. we believe as i talked about earlier it's all about education. it's about science and it's all about data. we believe if everybody will talk from that perspective, the solutions to the challenges of our day are easier to drive at if we base them in science and data. and that's why this u.s. model is so important is because what it shows us is we can reduce carbon emission. if that's the issue of our time, we can do that through cleaner burning natural gas. so we have not aligned with any campaign. we have not aligned with any political party. if questioned by any of them, we're open to all of them because we believe this energy issue, specifically oil and gas, is a common area where we should

be able to come together. >> thank you. i'm with the ap. many thanks for the opportunity. i would like to ask you about the western hemisphere. what opportunities do you see and how important are they in the western hemisphere for the next year not only about the deep water oil and gas operation in mexico, but also if you see any other -- if you can be conscious specific better. >> as you look at the western hemisphere, one of the big issues is mexico. as mexico emerges as a bigger player, the gulf of mexico, and the offshore activity. another issue on the agenda is the five-year plan of the outer continental shelf in the united states. we're hopeful the administration will provide many opportunities, including the atlantic coast, in

this new proposal that should be coming out here soon. when we look at the western hemisphere, there's many opportunities. canada has been our number one energy partner for many, many years. the united states continues to emerge as a major player now leading the world and combined with mexico you see a three nation opportunity here that's really a chance in a lifetime to see a lot of that energy focus shift back to this hemisphere. other opportunities, i mean you're all well aware of them. there's opportunities all around the globe. the difference is the united states is really emerging as the key player in the world. >> hi, jenny with energy wire. >> yes. >> looking at the crude export ban, which was such a major accomplishment, can you reflect a little bit on how that is going to shape the u.s. oil and gas industries in the near term

and in a decade or two? >> i think it is a good example as i mentioned in my prepared remarks of a long-term vision. when you think about the oil and gas industry, people forget that often times as our companies are making investments they don't look at first, second, third quarter. they're looking at 5, 10, 15, 20-year horizons. things like lifting the crude export ban allows the markets to operate as they should. why? because now it's become a truer free market. you've seen how the opportunity for american producers not only in refined product in lng, but now in crude oil. that's why there's such benefits to american consumers is because it gets back to supply and demand. as i mentioned earlier, from our vantage point as an industry, we're just looking for the opportunity. don't overregulate. we can protect the environment.

we can show environmental improvement at the same time we can produce the needed energy that the world needs. so lifting the crude export ban is a good example of a long-term energy policy. i think we should have a lot more focus and expedite the lng opportunities in the country. have a permitting process between doe and ferc that takes too long. we should focus on that just like we have other energy sources to expedite the permitting. why? because it creates an opportunity for u.s. producers to compete with anybody in the world and ultimately, as all the data shows, it benefits american consumers. so there are other opportunities out there. lifting the crude oil export ban was a big one. as you know, that's been in place about four years. that's changed the energy dynamic as we know it. >> hi, jack.

i'm with bloomberg news. >> yes. >> the other two factors that we've been hearing that are the reasons that prices -- the price rise has been blunted a little bit is because production hasn't -- there's no expectation that production is going to decline in saudi arabia and china is slowing down quite a bit. i'm wondering if you could look forward a little bit and tell us what you expect to happen in the next couple of months in the middle east if you could look into a crystal ball and if there was some lack of production there, what would it mean for american producers? >> i probably don't have any more insights than you do, brian. it's probably very a variety of reasons that the tension which is occurring -- which historically would have had an historic impact.

we don't predict the price. but the experts are saying today that price impact would have been significantly different than it is as a result of that unrest. i think that's the key to focus on from the u.s. perspective, which is who we represent, the american petroleum institute. our ability to compete in those global markets is a game changer. our world is evolving. it is realigning. while we'll have ups and downs, all we ask for is an opportunity. the companies we represent -- we don't want government intervention. we don't want government support. we just want opportunity to compete and the market will find its equilibrium. that's all we ask for. >> ben, climate wire. >> yeah, ben. >> i'm curious your thoughts on how u.s. oil and gas