which of course is everywhere and has infected everything. >> a professor amy -- on the limits of free expression on college campuses in the united states. sunday night at eight eastern on q&a. next, a conversation on u.s. energy policy. we will hear from interior secretary ryan zinke's counselor, mr. devito. >> good afternoon. welcome to the atlantic council. my good afternoon and welcome to the atlantic council. my name sis david livingston an i am a deputy direction or -- director here at our energy center, responsible for advanced

energy and climate portfolio. as we work to build a robust program aimed at technology, policies and markets of tomorrow, it is a great pleasure to be hosting mr. devito here for an event that the department of interior plays in the advanced energy future. it is also a pleasure to be hosting this event with so many familiar faces in the audience and such a distinguished set of guests. i would like to thank the department of interior for its cooperation with this event and think our staff here at the atlantic council. especially becca -- for putting this together today. the department of interior is often overlooked. it manages 1/5 of the land in the united states, 35,000 miles of coastline, 1.7 billion acres of the outer continental shelf and it also oversees 700

million acres of subsurface minerals. it is responsible not only for managing this wealth, this natural capital if you will, but also overseeing the conditions under which some of this wealth is responsibly and sustainably transformed into income in the form of energy production. indeed, the department is the second largest source of government revenue after the irs. by the majority of these revenues have been generated through fossil fuels, there is also a significant opportunity to harness america's abundant renewable energy potential on public land. from offshore wind to solar power to ocean wave energy to geothermal power, the land and water of the united states are replete with opportunities to produce clean, modern and affordable energy for american citizens. against this backdrop, it is a pleasure to welcome to the

atlantic council, mr. devito, counselor to mr. zinke. mr. devito has responsibility for coordinating policy over the bureaus, as well as with other government agencies. he has been an advocate for the role of advanced energy that it should play in the trump administration's energy policy. he previously held several roles in the department of energy and in many state energy offices. following his address, mr. devito will be joined on stage for a conversation with cynthia quarterman, a fellow here at our energy center met -- center. she has played roles in the department of transportation and interior. including, serving as former director of the minerals management service in the clinton administration. there is no one better to lead a conversation on the role of advanced energy across american land and american water.

so, it is a pleasure to welcome to the podium mr. devito. >> thank you, i appreciate that. thank you for coming today and listening to us. hopefully you'll have good takeaways that you can share and we continue this discussion. thank you for everyone here from the atlantic council and everyone from doi as well. i love that you started with the stats. i have prepared remarks, they are very good actually, but i will start with these stats, they are fascinating. one thing that i have learned, being at interior over the past year or so is the -- of the department and its responsibilities. one figure that was not mentioned which is appropriate

for today's that we are the second largest producer of hydroelectricity in the nation with our generating dams. this is remarkable. i started to learn that because my background as a corporate attorney was focused on the energy space and the electricity market. i would be able to bring that background. and the interior also spans 12 time zones, believe it or not and we have about 70,000 employees and we have about 2600 operating locations and, by some measures, at least with the scientists in our office, we manage the largest holdings of energy resources in the world. and before i start saying that publicly, i went up one side and down the other with scientists.

and they kept coming back to that is the situation so i've been saying that for quite some time and i call them holdings because what we are doing is managing these assets, not on behalf of the government but on behalf of the taxpayers. this gets to the point of why i am doing what i am doing and why the position was created. by president trump and secretary zinke. for context, it may be helpful to know that i have known secretary zinke for some time. we were friends before we worked together. and i am pleased to report we are still friends. this is a nice thing. the reality is, the department of interior has had a portfolio at its conception, however it has not had the type of priority

that the current administration and leadership have been providing it. so it has a strong mission of conservation and it is a strong steward of the environment and there is no better friend that we could have in regard to conservation and environmental stewardship than secretary zinke. however, in addition to those functions, this administration has added a management, corporate management in the business sense of the energy portfolio. so the secretary, looking at this, he decided it would be functionally smart to have someone there who could coordinate the policy and management of all of the energy portfolio which permeates all aspects. we used to say nine out of 10 agencies in the department but really, it is 10 out of 10.

we can have harmonized policy across the board. and the purpose for that which was mentioned earlier, it does have a strong revenue function in the department of interior for the federal government. what we noticed when we began was that revenue was down. and offshore alone, in 2006, there was $18 billion of revenue coming into the federal government through the department of interior. by 2016, it was down to $2.8 billion and that is about a loss of 15 billion over the course of time and $10 billion a year. why does that happen? i was fortunate enough to be invited to this position to examine that and is there a way

to remedy that? one first thing i learned through due diligence in the corporate sense, looking at numbers, was that in the energy economy which i was close to, there was a lot of investment going on. a lot of growth. there was no growth in federal lands. so you had investment in private land and state land and other countries going like this, and investment going into federal holdings going down like this. so, that is a problem, because as fiduciaries, on behalf of the taxpayers to manage these assets, we need to figure out a better return on our equity. so, going out and talking to folks, and looking at policies and examining how the dollars are flowing and where they went, it became apparent that the cost of compliance and the lack

of regulatory certainty and stability and the duration of time that it was taking to do business the federal government was really driving dollars to a different direction. i am in the fortunate position to be able to examine as other places for energy investment dollars, the flow, and places of competition. one thing we did first was address the cultural change. you probably saw that developing strongly, not only politically but also economically in this country over the past few years. but inside interior, recognizing across all of the agencies, that the energy portfolio is not something that we should not be promoting. in fact, it is the opposite.

we should be promoting our energy asset and what i have done probably on our sleeves. today, the economy in this country is as important as any other aspect, of the economy and as i said earlier, it is growing. so the concept is, promoting the energy economy, being proud of it, is not new. other countries do it. most other countries do it. canada, mexico, brazil, you can go across the map. here in the united states, i think, a little bit because we grow up and what was me, a consuming nation relying on the whims of opec and we have not realized it, but now everything is shifted and we have record production and we need to start wearing our economy on our sleeve proudly and our responsibility is to make sure

that the cultural shift is also happening but without displacing the environmental and conservation focus as well. which by the way, is hand-in- hand. a lot of the conservation programs that we have are funded by the revenues that we receive from bids, leases and royalties. that is an important component of money that flows out there into space even to protect parks as well. so all of this kind of works together. we start looking at reducing the cost of compliance, how do you do that? one way is to see if we could shorten time. in terms of permitting, consultation, and things of that nature. because, if you look at what the federal government was doing, it took seven years to get through a process and that

was not all across the board. but it is too long. they, especially offshore when they are investing, and energy, in their portfolio, they understand it takes a certain amount of time before they can get production. the reality is, in order to drive dollars back to the federal government, we had to lower, as i said before, the cost of compliance. one way to do that, i am talking about the cost of more money to do business the federal government than other folks and that is key, because, in order to drive the dollars back to federal holdings, the government needs to be a better business partner and more reliable, just like folks do in everyday transactions. i think my background rings a lot to this position to help the department and the secretaries achieve the mission of focusing on that. but going back to the cost of

compliance, shortening the time it takes for investors, those who want to invest in federal assets to receive permits, is a function we can do procedurally. and we have orders to achieve that. the reality is, this is nothing new for the federal government. one other thing in my background is being a lawyer. not that i ever -- but i represented people on the outside and they have a nice process. a one-year application phase and a year for the formal application and working with staff and litigation matters, you can generally predict as an investor, what your permitting

timeline is going to be. now it does not have to do any other federal agency. we all operated -- and we cannot change it, it will take congress. we are not changing it, it is how you process the required environmental protocols. i don't say what we do is streamline. the streamlining, i think too many stakeholders it means that you are actually cutting away a certain element that needs to be considered. where not doing that. expediting is different. expediting is making smart, reasonable, thought out decisions in a quick timeframe and holding folks to it. you may have noticed and i am surprised, a lot of people have not, but in this room you may have, a few weeks ago, a bunch of agencies got together and signed a memorandum of understanding.

the one federal decision. you will see it mirrors the two- year process and the president mentioned it in his state of the union earlier this year. the reality is, it has other interesting elements in it in the provisions. one is, if you have jurisdiction, you need to be a cooperating agency. i am a huge fan of cooperation. i have been promoting that for many years and i would encourage state agencies to be a cooperating agency with the federal commission because it gives you a seat at the table and i think it is more efficient . there are arguments against it but, it is part of our one federal decision mo you and if you have any jurisdiction or major projects, you need to be

a cooperating agency. this is key. this is something that we have mirrored in the department of interior. it used to be, that all of the agencies were operating independently in the interior, parks, fish, they were not necessarily cooperating and they were not necessarily communicating, so early on we would get comments from the park service and it didn't make any sense, under the same administration in interior and you are having different decisions across the line on projects. more importantly, back to the cost of compliance, when you are a project component, you need to deal with several different agencies across the board, inside interior. you know what that means? that means different staff, different allergists, different

biological opinions, everything is different if you are not operating together so we are changing that as well and that is also part of the cultural shift. i think this shift is important because as i mentioned, part of interior is a management organization. it makes it a fun place to work. for everybody there. everybody. this is what i have learned. everyone has a serious management function. i have experience in the department of energy where is more of a program agency and they collect money and distributed out to various programs and labs and the nuclear portfolio and interior, a lot of great professionals and political appointees are actually managing. so it seems to be when you make these shifts, in terms of priorities, or adding priorities, which are there in

the first place, there is an element of excitement. to memorialize that, the secretary has initiated a reorganization plan. it is important from this perspective if you are going to be a better business partner and make decisions that are focused on environmental stewardship and make decisions that put conversation as a purdy, those decisions don't need to be made here inside the beltway. because, most of what we manage outside of offshore, is out west. so, the secretary would be encouraging a lot of the decisions to be made by executives in the department who are closer to where the impact is to the communities. the department of interior needs to be a better neighbor.

a way of achieving that is to reduce the organization and shift personnel and decisions out west. another way is to change the way the department of interior makes decisions and does the business. this proposal includes 13 regions, so that when a particular decision is made or a specific project or policy, those in that region, across all of the agencies, can participate. we also have been talking about the joint command structure so that there is a -- you see this sometimes in the corporate world and also in the military where you see a shifting of leadership over the regions, so everyone has equal opportunity

to be a leader. and learn and communicate and share. so, this reorganization is something that is going to have longevity to it because i believe we will find that these type of cultural shifts and organizational shifts are going to achieve efficiency. when you achieve efficiency and better decisions quicker, those types of policy changes seem to outlast eight years of president trump and beyond. because, they are common sense government. and the important thing here is creating better documents and making better documented decisions. we saw early on the amount of judicial review in a negative way was painful and we were absorbing it and from prior administrations decisions that

went to the courts and the judges would say, oh my god, but what agency did not do its job, go back and do its job. that is a problem because the documents were not sufficient and we have examined that. and one reason why the document was defective according to the judges is that it seemed to be a lot of cutting and pasting going on between projects in the consulting world. we could see it. it was evident. you can see information and any file for that matter that was irrelevant to the project at hand and it had to come from someplace. in the business world and in my law firm i didn't cut and paste anything from client to client and project to project. each project was different. and each transaction was different. most documents are created --

and we create better documents so they have a better chance of understanding judicial scrutiny and that is a way that you have longevity in these policy shifts. and we are very happy with it and i believe the career of -- professionals in the agency are happy with the way we have been prioritizing and reorganizing and managing the department of interior, clearly we have been doing a lot in a short amount of time. but that is okay. we like to operate as the phrase says at the speed of decision and we like decisions being made in the field and a lot of times i think the processes if i don't make a decision i won't get in trouble but that is not our philosophy and there is discussion that can go with that.

the secretary told the executives and political leadership at the department of interior that we are all accountable for our jobs and have performance metrics and do your job. make a decision. he understands that not every decision made is going to be aligned with their thinking but if you are making a decision you are moving the ball further down the field and eventually if it needs the secretary's attention it will happen. but that has occurred specifically with projects. small projects. large projects. they have been stuck in the mud for several years and when he gave that cultural message, make a decision, and it can be examined, things started to move quicker and better and there have been projects, literally, that have been languishing on someone's desk for seven years that we have been able to move within seven

months and that is just good government. there is no politics or anything else behind it. just common sense government. government has a job to do. sometimes, our philosophy sometimes the government does not have a job to do, right? the best thing they can do, even though we have the ability to regulate in a certain sector or discretion to exercise oversight, it does not mean you need to regulate for the sake of regulating. we are addressing that as well. being an old agency, 1849, it mirrors our address, it gives us , we don't operate or have a strongly defined -- to operate like our more reach of -- more recently developed agencies like the doa. we were formed at a time when cabinet members had discretion and the secretary does exercise

that discretion and i think we are doing it in a way that is motivating, not only the career professionals that are there, because of being able to make decisions but also the longer- term policy of the department and part of my job, back to the beginning, is to help the department achieve more revenues , by bringing down the cost of compliance and the way we are measuring that is through actual analytics. we have an economics office and folks that are able to look at production and revenue numbers and we have reversed the trends and we are getting monthly reports on what that looks like. i started bringing business concept to government and we asked for the monthly report and we were told they don't exist. well, we are trying to be quick and efficient and do a lot and

how can you change in real time the policy decisions if you don't have the numbers to back up for due diligence. lo and behold, six months, we got figures and monthly and that is helpful. so it is remarkable, you know, one administration can change and years of a department that has been doing something the same way over and over again and at least on the energy portfolio and the managing assets that are so important to this country's economy and so important to the taxpayer. >> -- i think i was only getting 10 minutes, but we are not, this is out there, it is

wrong out there, that we had interior and this administration is -- we are not. we are all of the above and everything we have done so far has been basically unlocking the tools that have been in the shed for the past decade or so. what i mean by that is, we have not opened up any new areas yet that have not been designated for these purposes by prior administrations or by congress. that is a key. we are all of the above and definitely for multiple use and we always implement best practices and science in all of our decisions. thank you for having me here today.

>> thank you, counselor f counselor. it was very interesting to hear what you are thinking about the department. one thing that both you and david mentioned and i learned is how very important it is to the energy industry and i think a lot of people think the department of energy has a portfolio to cover energy for the federal government when in fact, much of the resources on federal lands are being developed within the department of interior. it is important. i want to go back to your explanation of your position because it is a new one in this administration. what is it that you will be doing that is different from past administrations and how do you coordinate with the other boroughs within the administration?

the white house, other departments, how does that work together now? >> it works well and great for the past 14 months or so. one tool that the secretary used to establish this position was an order which is key. one thing in the office and -- it is a great thing, you can go around the country and get a lot of things done. but it is another thing to have in order behind the position in your office which assigns responsibilities to no one else in the department, so that people understand where those decisions will be made and how the coordination and operation is going to continue. it started out with the secretarial order. the other component that we

established in terms of other agencies and bureaus across the country, was establishing an energy liaison screw. at the beginning, every director, it didn't have to be anyone, anyone who could participate in the energy liaison group that i chaired. we started with that and it was primarily a communications channel. i was surprised. i was skeptical if it would work. but we got people to participate and they continue to participate and it has been a remarkable channel, not just to discuss the priorities but also to receive the back. initially, i received so much information from the field as it is called, and it was overwhelming. we were able to triage and address a lot of issues under

projects that were important. i did not feel that they were able to channel effectively through the hallways and in the hallways -- what we call it -- the main office. but they felt going through the hallways, not that we encourage people to respect the hallways, but it seemed to be a slower process and all we do essentially is we are giving information that brings questions to it. we just ask for additional information and we have a conversation and if a decision needs to be made one way or another and the secretary agrees that happens quicker that way. that is the:we have. >> the process is in the bureau or the secretarial level?

or does it depend on what the decision is? >> not everything rises to the level of the secretary's office. and, overall, the message, the department message resonates. but each decision is not come to our office. at the beginning, a lot of decisions were being made. right? that is no way to run a railroad. that is not how the secretary wants to see things shake out. we want things out in the field. closer to where the community that is impacted by the decisions are. however, we found that there were certain things, whether it was dealing with issues like venting and flaring or big projects that were languishing, we got involved and i am a

lawyer and don't mind getting into a deal, it is something i enjoy doing, so we are enabled to do, as we examine what the opportunity, the challenges of whether or not we wanted to directly engage. >> past presidents have talked about energy independence. i think president trump is the first to use the term energy dominance when talking about his goals for the united states. and i am curious and most people , when they hear that and listen to the president and to secretary zinke they think about oil gas and coal, how does the advance in renewable energy fit into that puzzle of energy dominance? >> energy dominance is something we talk about and it is a strategy.

it is what it is. as i mentioned, we are all of the above and i will give you an example to do that. some context, when i was in the department of energy we would talk about energy interdependence and energy independence and here now, we are talking about energy dominance and one of my meetings with the state department, they have been talking about the united states as a superpower which we ultimately may be the best place to describe exactly who we are and what we are doing and being an energy superpower and that is our energy dominance strategy. one thing about this administration, comparing back to my prior experience, without being negative, is that this administration and its agencies is remarkable in its

communication with each other and it is a lot more with discussion in different departments, commerce, defense, you name it, in fact, which i don't think has been done before, this administration, we have weekly meetings on the calendar with myself, chief of staff of other energy-related agencies, we don't meet every week, but it is on the calendar and not everyone is there, but week communicate and get together and we are fully functioning. there is a lot of cooperation and teamwork in this administration. which i think is not necessarily recognize. i bring it up because of the coordination aspect and it triggered a thought in my mind, one pleasure in this administration is the level of

cooperation. and the reality is, with that, we are certainly aware of what the doa is doing. and they are aware of what we are and one thing that we are promoting in terms of the energy dominance strategy is domestically produced offshore wind. so renewable economy that is coming online in the united states is a new park -- new part of the energy economy and something that secretary zinke, myself and others are focused on at the department of interior. it is interesting to be on the ground floor of a new energy sector in the united states. there have been certain -- but we are starting to look on that and again, to my point, how can we maximize the return on that investment for the taxpayer, because, the first resale for offshore wind was $200,000.

this is plenty of money. and, in new york, shortly after that, it was $40 million. and we will do more lease sales and there is interest in it but i can't wait to see. how much money the taxpayer will make off of these blocks that we put up for bidding. because, this component of the offshore wind industry has not been fully explored before in the united states. it is thrilling. to be part of this advanced technology. the concept but know they are producing them and so this is the technology that is being brought stateside so our role in all that is to encourage that technology by greeting pipeline and supply chain because that will end up being these are generation units

that are too large to shift so that means jobs in norfolk or wherever the end of doing it that is all part of energy dominance and domestic supply insecurity and economically drivers that are helpful to us all. >> the last administration spent time at the interior to permit talking about advanced technologies and that sort of thing. have you made any changes to the existing regulation or policies or had to make plan to make changes or are you happy with where you are now? >> we made a lot of changes in a short amount of time but the primary focus of not displacing any of our environmental stewardship mission and maintaining our conservation but also at the same time examining technical aspects of the regulation that may not achieve

the desired outcome and disable part of our economy that drives. a lot of our changes up front were just modulating prior regulations to ensure that the energy economy on federal lands would be equitable with that on the state lands, as well. again, one of the federal things the federal government has to deal with as the states do not is [inaudible] and we are okay with that but it's how we process [inaudible] and it's one of the big changes that we are using that now and it's online and you can see the desperate for projects with offshore wind and were allowing for multiple designs to be smitten for certain farm which is a new change we adopted from europe so

there's a lot of tools in the shed that we are unlocking and at the same time we're trying to be innovative by best practices for sectors we don't have immediate experience with from places that do have it. >> i know he went to denmark and saw their technology and they were real leaders in the offshore wind area. what did you take from them to bring back to the united states and how will you put that into regulatory law here? >> i took out a lot. i'm a reluctant traveler. we all do a lot of traveling and several stakeholders insisted that i have to go to copenhagen and check this out. i was like oh my gosh, i've got to go to denmark and you know the drill. anyway, i was convinced and i was so glad we did. i got so much more from that trip and we have busy lives and

family lives and we condense a lot and we do a lot in the short amount of time. i extracted so much knowledge and information that you could see when we came back there was a shift and it's been traditionally been on the offshore wind program to developing the pipelines we can see jobs in the future and in that sector but my take away is the one stop shop that their energy ministry has. one of the reasons we are doing that at interior is because of what came with the other agencies. that is one of the takers. primarily to go over there and

you see that manufacturing so we shift the site so [inaudible] there's a lot of white hats going around so you can see the opportunity for real jobs that we do not have in this country yet that could come over here. that came back and it may be a skeptic but my law practice was built on renewable energy starting in around 2008 and the offshore wind stuff having been in boston and is seeing the cape wind that played out i was a skeptic as anybody which may have been my reluctant to travel to denmark but i'm glad that i did because everything has changed in my head in that sector. >> it's funny that you should make a tent mentioned

[inaudible] wind because they came in and we had no idea had authority over offshore wind in the offshore program. i'm going to ask you one more question generally about advanced technologies i think we need to open it up to the floor for questions. that is you hear about ocean wave, ocean current, perhaps offshore solar and is any of that near to happening now? >> i think the closest thing happening in terms of next generation is going to be the floating turbine because california wants to meet its rps and i don't think in my opinion that they will be able to do it all by solar. even though there is a lot of land it's sometimes a difficult pill to swallow because once you put a solar way up that is all it is good for.

the other aspect of solar especially with with the csp it gets hot in birds get affected by that and they get zapped for better lack of a word in the birds, and insects from and they have a few pickups that need to be regaled out but floating turbines you have to look into this not so much the title but also aspects from my perspective to interior in regards to advanced technology and also the hydro portfolio. we are examining how the maintenance back laws and all of that stuff that they want to address that with these new revenues we're making but i think bringing some of the better hydro, more efficient i

don't turn on generating dams will be a key aspect as well. >> let's it open to the group here. >> hello. jeff with [inaudible]. how does the ministration view energy development on tribal lands? is it a focus? >> absolutely. we have a bureau of indian affairs and i also chair the royalty policy committee where we have academic tribal industry and public sector representation and we are focused on helping energy development on tribal lands and it was raised in one of the meetings that was participating in with the president and over trying if you

talk to the leadership they don't have federal government involved at all. generally that is the message we received. we believe that there has to be a certain element of oversight in cooperation, as well. the secretary -- i am unique. most senior executives at the department of interior are from out west. i happen to be from the northeast and from massachusetts, of all places. historically i have not dealt those issues however, the secretary has. no one knows those issues or dies more deeply into them than him. it is a focus and we were at a meeting with him this morning when these issues came up and he deals with them personally.

>> any other question in the front? >> i'm bob with the consultants. can you tell us we deal with the trade-offs of energy environment and cost? >> sure. from our perspective there aren't any trade-offs but it's all up up. for instance, it is important to note that even though we are focused on increasing production revenue were not increasing the footprint. the directional drilling is a bunch of other issues that can be resolved there. the trade-off from our perspective is that in creating

and doing better and more mental reviews creating better records of decision you're looking at both the environmental benefits and in bimetal impact and the economic impact of specific projects and that is what the president issued early out of his administration. the result of that is a more thoughtful, thorough examination of all projects, and governmental and other documents to go into a record of decision. i don't think it's a trade-off but a net benefit that is being thought through which is helpful to not only the energy economy and making sure that were focused on it and proud on it because the reality is any production here is going to displace production elsewhere. that is part of the global market and nobody does energy production better than the us. we are cleaner and more responsible and we meet with these executives and the folks working in the field and in

alaska if they are smoking a cigarette they don't put it in the snow or grass but in their coke can and take it off site. the secretary says he has the boy scout motto which is great because i enjoy that program as well but you leave your site as good or better than when he found it and in the field that are doing this have that same mentality. >> can i follow up on that question? there are those on one side to say that you have to spend a lot of time working on that and it so important and the other siz e says that limited it to the least amount of time as possible. i'll we say that it is process rich. you don't decide what is going to happen based on [inaudible] but it's a process that you have to follow and i am wondering

when you cut down the time for the regular decision if you have a two-year process do you perhaps shoot yourself in the foot by not having gone through the process thoroughly enough to defend against those judicial suits that will probably come up as a result of the decision-making. >> right. part of the expedited process is also being project specific. some of the policy choices that can be made is how big an examination has to be done for a particular project. do we have to require a project proponent to do a study on deciphered impacts in 30 or 40 or years out and we limit that to the five years. to have to create new information or information re: this or and do we have to ask

for information that is not necessarily relevant. that is one of the ways we can address the process which is something which we cannot tinker with and we can address the process to meet the requiremen requirements. >> any other questions in the audience? >> [inaudible] with the canadian embassy. counselor, thank you for your remarks. i wonder if i could get your views on how actions on steel tariffs and quotas could affect the structure construction that is needed to advance your energy dominant strategy. thank you. >> you welcome. the tariffs and trade discussion is part of a larger conversation which is not necessarily in the purview of the department of

interior but i will say so far i have not seen and we get lobbied or advocated before on all these issues which is great because one of the other from things about this administration is because of the medication people will come to pass on issues that are directly within our purview to express their interest and see how we could be helpful if it's a reasonable thing to do or simply to see what information we may be able to share with them if that is an appropriate thing to do as well but at large i have not and i'm close obviously with -- there's no significant or have not even registered on the scale of any impact from those thoughts at all other then we all read about it in the trade but up close and personal to these project components and stakeholders i -- >> what about the big wind turbines and the wind project and you don't think those will be affected?

>> they also apply for exemptions as well and since we have dumped off that bridge yet so to speak it's hypothetical to where will be at that point in time is unsure but no, all i can tell you is from experience from the meetings i've had that it has not been impactful yet. >> i think we have time for a couple more questions. >> hello, thank you for coming. i'm alex stapleton with the british embassy. after merely curious on offshore wind but there may be other industries that you might have thoughts on and you talk about one federal decision and even bringing in some state authorities and to hear their perspective. what about local communities and these projects have local consenting issues and i'd be curious to hear your thoughts. >> one of the things i'm doing with regard to -- i don't do offshore wind but oil and gas,

too. a lot of this is relevant there as well. one of the things i'm doing on offshore wind because it is so localized and these stakeholder impact can be literally at the beachfront is we are directly coordinating with the states in new york and massachusetts in virginia and new jersey and others we have a direct communication. i personally going with the governor had lead a master issue so that they understand that one of the things that i am doing is early on is educating that this is part of our portfolio and something we are working aggressively on. that is a fun part to make sure there is focus but also to open my navigation but more broadly to your point is when it does come to do an actual permitting

that there can be a level of reciprocation between state and federal government which i am a big believer. part of opening that dialogue in the discussions i have are all about that type of cooperation on the permitting site. however, we also are sensitive to and the secretary is focused on this fishing industry and the shellfish and fisherman and those are all important components of this feature part of our economy and they have a seat at the table at this administration just as everyone else does. >> one more question over here. >> hello. my name is george from the george washington university. i was wondering to the extent of [inaudible] >> yeah, because i will throw this out there because one of the great things about this job and i think the secretary does a fabulous job is advocating or

advertising that the department of interior does manage an enormous, largest in the world, energy portfolio. because of that i was invited to speak at the us chamber of commerce and they in by the to an elegy, so we talked. in terms of the larger energy dominant strategy but also pipelines are important to because it also goes toward infrastructure and some of it crosses federal lands and state lands and indian lands so how do you deal with all of that. we did these regions and part of that is water boundaries and they are not done -- well, we were going to do restructure blm but the governor was like for every state and that did not change much but we did at the water boundaries to get the systems were normalized until we

have reformation as well but to get one decision for one project from all the agencies and interior and a more reasonable fashion so that the project proponents and the project opponents don't have to run around the department of interior so so we will not issue a permit [inaudible] we want to make that process go smoothly. there's just common sense government and it's just a better way to deal with the government. >> any final words from any of the other energy issues at the interior and i know waiting to see what will happen there and

there's the offshore program which causes any things -- >> how much time do i have? [laughter] perfect. the gulf of mexico and the basin and a lot of that is very much focused on making sure that our energy economy is something that we are proud of and something we are managing at a responsible way and we are continually we are definitely all of the above and i like pinpointing this new sector of the energy economy that is online very soon which is remarkable and we are multiple use and the secretary is excellent steward of the environment and i'm happy to be his friend. they keep having me.

>> thank you for coming. we really appreciate it. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]