minimize adverse impact man -- impact on the environment. later on, when they submit their plans, they undertake to mitigate in farm a lot exit their activities produce. our overworked personnel have tried from time to time to determine whether those commitments have been fulfilled. but the agency has never had personnel specifically dedicated to that task. now we will. as to our inspections program which has been under resources and out matched by industry, we are creating for the first time a national training center led by a trend director home we are also seeking through a nationwide search. our inspectors have generally

learned to do their jobs during combination of on-the-job training and industry-sponsored course is aimed at teaching of certain types of it wouldn't work. the agency has never had a training center dedicated to training inspectors on how to do their jobs. now, we will. let me briefly discuss the important substantive work that is going on within the agency to provide the tools, the training, and the changes to the culture to make sure that the reorganization will have the results we are aiming for. as part of our broad and continuing reform efforts, we created last fall in number of implementation teams. they have been hard at work for several months. they are the central focus of our efforts to analyze critical aspect of bone structures and processes and implement changes. these teams are integral to our reorganization and reform efforts. they are considering the various recommendations for improvement we have received from various sources including the investigations i mentioned

earlier. through their work, these teams are laying the foundation for a lasting change in the way that boem currently does business and in the future. we are in the midst of reviewing our application of the environmental policy act including the use of categorical exclusion spirit we have attained public comments on our policy and are reviewing and now -- and analyzing these comments while working to develop a new framework to ensure that environmental risks are thoroughly analyzed inappropriate protective measures are implemented. in the meantime, we are requiring that site-specific assessments be conducted for all new and revised exploration and development plans in deep water. to address conflicts of interest, we have issued a tough new recusal policy that will reduce the potential for real conflict of interest.

employees must notify their supervisors about any potential conflicts of interest and requests to be excused from performing any official duty in which such a conflict exists. our inspectors are required to recuse themselves from the corn inspections at a facility on a former employer. any attempt to inappropriately influence pressure must be reported. we will soon be issuing a broader version of a policy that applies these ethical standards across the agency. i know this is presenting some operational challenges for some of our district offices in the gulf region which are located in small communities where the primary employers are offshore companies. the need for tough rules defining the boundaries between regulators and the regulated is necessary and compelling. these rules are necessary to assure the public that our inspections and enforcement

programs are effective, aggressive, and independent. finally, we are continuing to step our investigations and review unit. this unit is currently composed of professionals with law enforcement background. they brought a response to allegations or evidence of misconduct and unethical behavior by bureau employees but also produce allegations of misconduct in oil and gas companies when there is credible evidence. we issued the first major report this year to come out of the iru. when i was here in january, i discussed the reforms we were pursuing to improve the effectiveness of government oversight of offshore energy development and drilling. these changes in safety and accident prevention, blowout containment, and response and continue to be substantial and necessary.

as the report of the president's commission makes abundantly clear, industry must change as well. some of this work must be initiated and implemented by industry but our agency has a clear and important role in helping to spur that change. we are doing so through the issuance of tough new regulations to bolster safety and enhance the evaluation and mitigation of environmental risks. we have also introduced for the first time performance-based standards similar to regulators in the north sea where operators are up responsible for minimizing the risks associated with drilling operations. we've done this for the development and implementation of the two new rules announced last fall that raised standards. the first rule, the drilling safety rule, is an emergency safety rule. it creates a tough new standards for well-designed tasting and cementing including blowout preventers.

operators are now required to retain independent third-party inspection and certification of the proposed drilling program and process. in addition, an engineer must certify that a lot renters' meet new standards for testing and maintenance and are capable of severing the drill pipe under anticipated pressures. the second rule is the workplace safety rules requires operators to systematically identify risks and establish barriers and seeks to reduce the human and organizational errors that lie at the heart of many accidents. this rule was being developed prior to the deep water horizon but its issuance was deferred, delayed, and block for many years. under the workplace safety rules also known as the safety and environmental safety issues, operators are required to develop a comprehensive safety and management program that fully identified the potential hazards and risk reduction strategies for all phases of activity from well-designed construction and two operating

maidens and the decommissioning of platforms. many progress of for-looking companies have developed such systems on a voluntary basis in the past, many had not and our reviews demonstrated that the percentage of offshore operators was declining over time. in addition, we issued notice that provided additional guidance to operators on complying with existing regulations. last summer, we issued ntl-6 which includes a well-specific blowout scenario. operators must provide the assumptions and calculations behind these scenarios. our engineers and geologists have independently verified the worst-case scenarios to insure that we have an accurate picture of the spill potential of each well. following the lifting of the deep water drilling moratorium, we issued ntl-10 which

establishes a mandatory corporate statement from the operators certified it will conduct drilling operations in compliance with all applicable agency publications including the new drilling city world. it also confirms that boem will be conducting well by well inspections whether the of -- the operators have access to and can deploy resources that would be sufficient to prompt response to a deep water blowout or other loss of well controlled. as i mentioned at the outset, operators must now have a plan in advance to shut in a deepwater blood and capture oil flowing for my wild well. that must have a plan. they must have access to the equipment and they must have arrangements, contractual or otherwise, that show their ability to make use of that equipment. in this way, rather than improvising a containment response on the fly, with its inevitable hits and misses, each

operator needs to work through its containment plan in advance and we have to approve that plan. our regulatory changes are the last year have been sweeping and swift especially compared to historical change. we have been asked many questions from industry about how to comply. we worked for the policy and implementation issues diligently with frequent consultations in the gulf of mexico and in washington. this process was constructed in good faith and we made very substantial progress in defining and clarifying issues to the operators and the industry more generally. in fact, it was an example of appropriate engagement between government and industry. what was destructive, corrosive, and not done in good faith was the sniping from certain public officials and industry trade associations. they claimed and some continued to assert that we have opposed

-- imposed a defect in a moratorium that is blocking permits. that is not because the applications had failed to meet the requirements but supposedly because we had made politically motivated decisions not to issue them. that could not have been further from the truth. it was repeated often enough that people who should have known better came to believe it. for example, a businessman from louisiana told me that he understood that we in washington had fully complied permit applications sitting on our desk awaiting approval. he seemed surprised when i told him our district offices in the gulf of mexico have that job and that i have no role in making decisions on individual permits. in fact, the chief obstacle standing in the way of proving deepwater killing permits from october through the middle of february was the unavailability of resources to contain a sub-

sea blowout. the absence of ready-made containment systems and advanced plans and how to deploy such systems is what allowed the mcconnell well to float for 87 days. last summer, the major oil and gas companies announced the formation of a marine well contained in companies whose mission was to develop such a capability and make available to the community of the border operators. subsequently, the helix will contain and pronounced their intention to build a separate containment system with similar capabilities. we encouraged both but endorsed neither. from october through mid february, we had numerous meetings with the containment companies and with individual operators who acknowledged that they understood no deep water permits could be issued until those capabilities had been developed, tested, and reviewed. unfortunately, that simple truth failed to make much impression on those alleging a defect a moratorium. it would have been a rational

and irresponsible to resume deepwater drilling before bible containment systems were available. in mid february, both helix and the mwcc said the systems were ready to operate. the systems including the capping stacks were tested in the presence of our engineers and test results were reviewed. secretary salazar and i went down to houston and met with both critz and we looked at the capitol steps. the availability of the containment systems is what led to the issuance of the first new deepwater drilling permit since deepwater horizon. since february 28, we have issued drilling permits for 11 unique deep water wells. we were able to do so because in every case the applications comply fully with our more rigorous safety and environmental requirements and each of them had demonstrated ability to contain a sub-cspan sea spill.

the requirement is solely that the resources be adequate to deal with a blowout of the particular well that has unique characteristics of water depth, well death, pressure, and other well-specific characteristics. this well by well analysis is a time intensive, labor-intensive process but one that is crucial to ensuring that adequate content and resources are available for each deep water well that is drilled. as we move forward with appropriate speed in deep water, we have continued to issue shallow water permits in every case ready application complies with all of our high standards that apply to shallow water operations. as of yesterday, we have approved 49 to lead permits for new wells in shallow water since last summer and are pace of shallow water permiting has been consistent for many months averaging 6 per month since october of 2010 article while this pace is slightly below historical averages, there is

not a backlog of pending permit applications. there are only five permit applications pending with another four having been returned for further information. such historical comparisons are beside the point. we don't have a permit quota or even a permit goal. our goal is to approve every fully compliant permit application with the emphasis on fully compliant as promptly as weekend with our limited resources. that brings this to the key issue of resources. i address the historic consistent and shameful under- funding of mms. despite our important mission and the revenues generated for the u.s. treasury by offshore leasing, exploration and production, the agency was put on a starvation diet throughout its history but especially in recent years. the unanimous conclusion of the many reviews and investigations

is that the central source of the multiple problems with the nation's oversight of offshore energy development has been the lack of resources. even so, financial support has been slow in coming. president obama submitted a supplemental budget request last summer seeking an additional $100 million for the agency. until last week, the promise of a brighter future could not be redeemed because congress had not acted on that request. we were poised to hire additional inspectors, environmental scientists, and permitting personnel but we did not have the funding. at least now part of that request has been met. last week, congress passed and the president signed a continuing resolution that provides the department of the interior a total of $68 million above fiscal year 2010 funding levels for our departments. boem will receive $47 million.

that is far less than what we need. it is a significant sum, especially in the constrained budget environment where the funding and most other agencies are being cut. our funding needs of real world implications. the 2011 funding bill will preserve our most essential functions for the remainder of the year as the president promised and it will allow us to make significant incremental progress. it will not allow us to improve operations to the future to the extent and the way we think are desirable and necessary. we desperately need more engineers, inspectors, and other safety personnel. we desperately need more environmental scientist, and more sired -- and more individuals to do scientific analysis and more personnel to help us with a permit process and much more. we have taken a first dip to ramp up our hiring in certain key areas.

last october and november, i visited five engineering and petroleum engineering schools in louisiana and texas as part of a drive to recruit engineers and inspectors to work for the agency. we generated more than 500 job applications in 10 days. our hiring was clouded by the continued uncertainty about funding. the week before last, we extended that recruitment drive to include environmental scientists and i visited nine top environmental science schools on the west coast in five days and we have already received more than 600 job applications. that was at a time when we were not yet assured of the funding. now that we have it, or some of it, we will be able to hire some of these enthusiastic environmental scientists who can help us perform our mission as well as some of the engineering students who applied last fall. to further extend our recruiting, we plan to visit a number of other schools in various regions around the country. we are determined not to simply use these additional resources

in personnel to do what we have done before. we need to learn from our shortcomings, address our witnesses, and figure out better and more efficient methods for doing our work. we will be aided by the recommendations that will flow from the internal implementation teams a mentioned earlier but we will seek guidance from other sources as well. one of those sources is the new ocean energy safety advisory committee chaired by dr. tom hunter. they met yesterday. this committee includes representatives of federal agencies, industry, including charlie williams, academia, national labs, and various research organizations. this 15-member committee will work on a variety of issues related to offshore safety including drilling and workplace safety, well-intervention and content and an oil spill response. this will be a key component of a long-term strategy to address

the technological need an inherent risks associated offshore drilling and deepwater drilling in particular. the advice and recommendations of this advisory committee will be welcomed by our agency and after october. the ocean energy safety institute which will be shaped by the advisory committee but which requires congressional authorization will foster collaboration among all stakeholders to increase offshore energy safety. the institute will focus on a broad range of matters relating to offshore safety including drilling and workplace safety and contained in an oil spill response. it will also help spur collaborative research and the letter -- and development, training and execution. most importantly, the advisory committee and a sense did are key components of a long-term strategy to address 8 -- the technological need to assess it

with offshore drilling. a final and very important part of our long-term strategy includes and strengthening our cooperation with international counterparts. there was the importance of sharing experiences across different international systems and establishing global standards and best practices. we agree with that. offshore regulators have much to gain from collaborating to elevate the safety and environmental soundness of of terror operations around world. last week, secretary salazar and the deputy secretary posted energy officials from 12 countries in the european union. this was truly an historic meeting for the department and it led to a fruitful dialogue about best practices and how best to develop cutting edge effective safety and containment technology. the meeting concluded with the unanimous recommendation that this dialogue should and must

continue at the highest levels of government. going forward, we will continue to work to strengthen the channels for international cooperation and sharing of best practices across different regulatory genes. we'll continue our engagement with the international regulators forum. the offshore regulatory agencies of the u.s., the u.k., brazil, norway, canada, the netherlands, australia, new zealand, and mexico participated in the irf. these countries share information, safety issues, accident investigations and regulatory policies and international standards and conventions, performance measures, and research. members may exchange personnel and establish reciprocal agreement a. boem will also continue in this important forum. in addition to these multilateral efforts, would participate in a number of government initiatives.

we're working with foreign regulatory agencies around the world to share best practices that can build best practices for the department of state's energy governments and capacity initiative. this is a multi-agency global effort to provide a range of technical and capacity-building to countries that are expected to become all emerging oil and gas producers. for this program, our experts have participated in needs assessment and have conducted workshops in many places around the world. in may, we will bring a team to uganda to discuss the specifics of oil and gas reserves and economic valuation for discovered an undiscovered resources for a separate team will visit got to conduct a workshop. in addition,boemer continues with the governments of iraq and india. in february, we held a second

joint industry regulator workshop in new delhi focus on integrity management with our regulatory counterpart in india. in may, we will participate on an interagency team to provide technical assistance on oil and gas contract to the government of iraq, specifically the ministry of oil petroleum contract and licensing department. finally, we also are working with our counterparts in mexico toward an agreement that would define regulatory protocols for the potential development trans- boundary reservoirs' in the gulf of mexico. the development of common standards for deepwater operations in the gulf of mexico is a priority from my bureau and for the department of the interior and did ministration as it is for the government of mexico. as a result of the government to government engagements, we have embraced the opportunities to establish long-term working relationships and promote sound

energy governance. it is my hope we will continue to collaborate with their foreign counterparts for bilateral government assistance programs and corporate multilateral channels in developing safer and more environmentally drilling in the world's oceans. we have recognized that there is no escaping the central fact that offshore drilling not only will continue but that it will expand into ever more challenging areas around the world including deeper waters and specifically in the arctic. the world demands energy and the oceans are where we find it. we need the global institutions and standards necessary to meet these challenges and insure safe and responsible development offshore resources are around the world. offshore drilling in the united states and around the world he will never be the same as it was one year ago. that much is clear. the changes we put in place will

endure because there were urgent, necessary, and the program. more change will surely come all but not at the frantic pace of the past year. in fact, we are moving ahead right now. we will first be launching a major role-making designed to enhance offshore drilling safety. this process will be broad, inclusive, and ambitious. our goal be nothing less than a further set of enhancements that will increase drilling safety and for the demise the risks of a major blowout. it will address weaknesses and necessary improvements to blowout preventers as well as many other issues. we genuinely hope that the broad efforts undertaken by the industry in the wake of the deepwater horizon will provide the basis for solid recommendations of best practices including those that should be included the than prescriptive or performance

based regulations. second, we will enhanced stems rule by requiring third-party audits of the program as well as other modifications and improvements to the rules. we are determined that this rule live up to its promise by causing operators to comprehensively and responsibly identified, address, and the mediate the risks of offshore drilling especially those risks associated with the conditions of deepwater drilling. while much has changed over the past year, we are continuing to improve drilling standards. i want to be absolutely clear about something -- the process of making offshore energy development safe and sufficient to help meet the nation's the world's energy demands will never be complete. it is a continuing ongoing dynamic enterprise. those who ask the simplistic question, is offshore drilling

regulations fix it or is the agency fixed yet missed a most important lessons of deep water horizon. the central challenge that deepwater horizon and exposed and highlighted is the need to establish the institutions and systems than the processes of cultural change and improvement necessary to ensure that neither government nor industry ever again become self satisfied to the point where they would answer that question, yes. it is exactly that sort of complacency and overconfidence that set the stage for deepwater horizon. let me describe some of the key elements that my vision of the future of offshore energy oversight and development in clues. they flow directly from the issues i have just discussed. first, a well-funded resource regulator that evaluates the relevant risks associated with offshore drilling and other

energy development activities in designing its regulations and compliance and enforcement programs. this includes the development of more sophisticated metrics for measuring risk and designing programs for evaluating those risks and assessing whether industry is managing those risks appropriately. second, industry performance standards, particularly for the highest risk operations in deep water and challenging areas such as the arctic that because operators to engage in rhetoric and deeply self critical evaluations of the hazards posed by their operations and the measures implemented to address those hazards. third, a regulatory agency that has the tools and resources to hold all players involved in drilling and production activity to high standards and if there are safety or environmental violations or an accident, hold all responsible parties accountable. importantly, this includes not only those companies that operate leases, the traditional

subject of agency regulation and a forum, but their contractors and service providers such as the owners of drilling rigs as well. fourth, enduring institutions that's for continued government and industry focus on innovation in the areas of risk assessment, technological advances and safety equipment and emergency response equipment and further improvements in the effectiveness and availability of sub-sea containment responses and coordination. fifth, a resource management agency that develops and taking advantage of all available scientific information and analysis to support balanced decision making and the economic benefits of offshore drilling development. sixth, regulatory system that is affected in striking a propellants and ensuring energy development is conducted safely and in an environmentally safe

manner. seventh, a leasing and revenue generation system that encourages the active development of the nation's natural resources made available to the industry to provide for the country's energy needs. eighth, a set of principles and standards by which companies drilling and producing in the oceans govern their conduct regardless of where in the world they are operating. finally, and ocean energy program that includes top of the development of oil and gas resources but also the aggressive and responsible development of renewable energy resources. the long-term solution to meeting the nation's energy needs must include power derived from clean and reliable sources such as offshore wind. following deepwater horizon, a broad consensus quickly immersed in government and industry that there was an urgent need for upgrading the safety rules and practices within the oil and gas industry.

far more quickly than many people anticipated, that consensus began to weaken and fright as new rules were developed a new requirements were imposed on companies operating offshore. some offshore operators and support companies plan to recognize that the deep water horizon was a symptom of a broader failure in both industry and government. it was a systemic failure to ensure that advances in drilling and workplace safety kept pace with increasingly risky operations. as a result, they have supported our efforts to strengthen oversight of offshore drilling and have undertaken their own efforts to raise standards for drilling and workplace safety, spill containment, and spill response. there have been others who have seemed all too ready to shrug off the border horizon as a complete aberration. they point to the lack of a similar plot in the decades before the explosion and suggest that the steps are taken have been an overreaction and were unnecessary. he needless to say, that is

terribly disappointed. ing. we need to keep the complacency from creeping back into my agency and into industry. industry and government regulators alike must continue to resist the fierce pressures to return to business as it used to be conducted. down that path, lies another deepwater horizon. it has been a long year and i've no expectation it will get easier anytime soon. i did not take this job because i thought it would be easy. i believe in the work we are doing. i believe in a tangible result i have seen in meetings with industry, on offshore rigs, and the interest in our work i have seen an academic institutions i have visited over the year on separate petroleum engineer recruitment tours. people are watching our work around the world. they are interested in -- and invested in it and they know the

stakes involved in whether we succeed. we cannot afford a. failed we don't plan to fail. we are determined to succeed in creating a system that allows continued offshore development while ensuring safety and environmental protection. that is the goal we will continue to pursue with single- minded determination. i want to thank you for your time and attention and i am happy to take questions. [applause] >> you have a reputation for being candid and comprehensive and you continue to set the bar very high. it is extremely useful and important that we have this discussion. but start with one quick question. you talked about the ability to increase capability in january and today, capacity and capability in the current fiscal regime. how do you extend offers to

potential candidates? is there some trusted agent for and you can use with certain retirees or contractors to bridge that gap? >> that is a good question. we are exploring all those alternatives for defunding did not land until last week. the in my a -- the environmental science tori to a couple of weeks ago was a wing and a prayer. we had two placeholder placement on our website of people applied, it would be on us to get back to them. the sinister with respect to the engineering and inspections positions. -- the same is true with respect to the engineering and inspections positions. we want to hire new people in all the areas where we need supplementation including inspections and in our mental

side but also in permiting. we hope to come up with a balance method to hire people and all those areas. we are exploring all sorts of alternatives in terms of filling short-term gaps. for example, as i have anticipated a possible log jam and permit applications which has not developed yet but i am concerned that it may, i have reached out the various oil and gas companies and asked them to pool the recently retired engineers that might be able to come on board and supplement the work we are doing. we would obviously have lots of safeguards and conflict of interest checks in place so that somebody from shell would not reveal a shelter and application. -- a shelf drilling application. there is a potential pool of very talented personnel and we are hoping to tap into their

yearning for public service to come back and helpless at least on an interim basis. we already have the nominations from a number of companies. we are going through the process now and maybe will bring some of those on board quickly. there will be under the supervision of our people. we will make the final decisions but it is to fill a gap in the the number of available people we have to make certain important analyses in the permitting process. >> in terms of public questions, we will take questions from the audience. wait for a microphone, identify yourself, and if you compose your question in the form of a question, that would be greatly appreciated. [laughter] we will start on this end. >> i am with the houston chronicle.

you mentioned the reaction of industry to the postsspi-ll rules. one of those reactions was a lawsuit challenging the pace of permitting. because some of the permits at issue in that case have been issued at this point, i am hoping you could give us an update. >> that is a good question. the litigation continues to be pursued. i will march in violate the rule that ims was the comment on litigation. i don't see any lawyers from the interior department so i will talk. the litigation, as i understand it, was designed to get court intervention to cause us to issue permits rapidly. it is a troubling suggestion that there be an incursion on administrative executive authority to decide when those permits are eligible to be awarded. interestingly, that litigation

being pursued a ensco, we were on may rig last week that was one of theirs that will be drilling the well was for the permit we issue. lo and behold, there were seven the e eightnsco people on board working. the lawsuit claims that have not been able to get the word because we have had a defacto moratorium. the fact is that left to our own devices, not compelled by the court, we have issued permits and people in putting ensco people are back to work. it is strange that the litigation continues to be pursued even though for some of the entities involved in a lawsuit, we have already granted their permits.

he troubling part to me is that what remains in the lawsuit is a very troubling assault on our new safety regulations. if the relief granted is given by the court, that would tear away much of the fabric of the new safety rules that we put in place. i think that would be tragic for the country, for the industry, and for our agency. i hope that does not succeed. >> i'm with the energy daily. one year after the blowout, it appears there is no consensus among industry experts and officials as to why bop failed. are you confident that sure investigators will have the confidence and technical knowledge to determine the

drilling company's safety plans are adequate? >> in the forensic examination of bop has been a long-term project. we hired an outside forensic investigator to conduct of this. they issued their report and we issued a publicly in late march. it was then subject to a set of hearings and louisiana -- in louisiana that ast meaningful and good questions about that analysis. clearly, these are very technical issues. we have trained our people recently to do the kinds of more searching examinations of bop's than they had before to monitor the new categories of testing that are required under our rules. this will be a long-term process and project like everything else. develop and's will

training of our inspectors and regulatory personnel needs to advance with the enhancements ofbop's that needs to be a continuing and dynamic process moving forward. >> dr. williams and the next panel will touch on that in the context of industry standards. >> could you comment on the discussions buchanan or the u.s. government is having with the russians on aw sureprudhoe bay to see what cooperation is possible in that part of the world? >> i am not having any conversations with the russians. it was mentioned there is an arctic meeting in the near future. director salazar is more directly involved and i am. this goes back to what the

themes and the speech which is just as the gulf of mexico is a share body of water involving us and mexico and cuba, the arctic is as well a shared resource with a number of countries having the jurisdiction to permit or not offshore drilling. i drank there is clearly a very prep -- i think there is clearly a pressing need to increase the volume and the pace of collaborations between governments. that is one the reasons we were so gratified to see representatives of the russian federation and our international spill containment form last week. they were participants and they were enthusiastic and they welcomed further meetings at the ministerial level i think the dialogue has begun not only in the containment form but other forms as well and will continue. i think that is a very hopeful sign.

>> the g-20 is also advancing? >> right. >> i'm a retired foreign service officer. you mentioned you had a 500 applicants for engineering and 600 environmental scientists. how'd you find the quality and level of education of these two groups of people? is the future of the united states ok in terms of our education process? >> on the evidence of all those applications, clearly, the interest is there. the schools we went to have outstanding reputations. for engineering and environmental science. we obviously will not know until

we go through the process of sifting through the applications and trying to bring people on board. it is less of a problem with environmental scientists. the problem is paying him enough to attract them and bring on board. we have encountered some problems with the people we tried to recruit when they actually get into the process and they find out what we peg. then they are not interested. we have done our best to try to remedy that by applying to the office of personnel management for the ability to pay at rates that are different in the normalgs scale. most of my counterparts do that. they pull the salary that you are paying out of the normal scale in recognition that you are competing with industry which can afford to pay for more. so far come opm has said that we have not supplied enough

evidence to cover the differential. i hope anyone will take notice of that by looking at the starting salaries elsewhere. we will continue to work o withpm and other agencies and the federal government to prove what i would hope is obvious, that there is a huge gap and we need to do what we can. we will never equalize the salaries at a level. an important motive of the people we are trying to attract is one of public service and one of a different lifestyle. people who work for some of the major companies have to stay on platforms and facilities for weeks had a ton. we don't require our people to do that. unless people are interested in public service and interested in serving the country in this important area, they are probably not going to want to come to work for us. i think there are many who are. we need to do what we can to

make things less difficult for them. >> you laid out an ambitious and necessary several making and programs you hope to advance. how much you need legislative help and how much can you do internal? >> we can do a lot internally. we need several things that would be helpful legislatively. one would be to get organic legislation that supports the reorganization we are doing. we are still proceeding and to various secretarial orders. there has been legislative proposals to expand the time that we get to review exploration plans. we need the extra time. when we have a large number of exploration plans and we have a limited number of personnel, we cannot get them all done.

in 30 days. the bed choice that our people faces either allowing the clock to run past 30 days which case violating block orlof to ask operators to restart the clock. the box that we are in right now is we have two bad choices i have encouraged our people to not violate law but take the time that is necessary to review the applications and do it with all deliberate speed but so that we have a measure of how long it actually takes to properly review these exploration plans. if it is 45 days, let the kids like that data as for the support for getting the legislative extension we need. we need other things beside the fine level of violence in four roles, $35,000 per day per

incident. that is laughable. that needs to be changed. it needs to be changed legislatively. there are a variety of things we need legislative help for. i mentioned the ocean energy safety institute which would carry on the work under the guidance and supervision of the advisory committee. we need legislative authorization for that. that is a short menu of the things we need. >> let me take one more question. i promised michael would get him back to his real job. >> i want to ask you one more question about the arctic. you said there would be drilling there. could you speak, given the well- known circumstances, how the containment, how you can be confident that content and would

work up there? >> this is a situation where we embraced the idea that drilling in the arctic is possible but the proof of the pudding will be a in theeating and that means the reviewing of a specific application made to us and determining whether the containment capability and the spill response capabilities are sufficient given the special conditions of the arctic. shell had a program to drill a single well on beaufort sea. there were problems with an epa permit and they pull that off the table but have announced their plans to drill in the. arctic have await, see, and evaluate approach. there is a lack of infrastructure and not the same kind of coast guard presence we have in the gulf of mexico. is also shallower water that exists in the gulf of mexico.

there is no doubt there are special and unique challenges and that other companies have expressed interest in drilling as early as the summer of 2012 and they will have to have comprehensive applications that satisfy us that they have done all that needs to be done and they have the containment capabilities and they have response capabilities. >> it has been a pleasure. we will bring you back here on a quarterly update but thank you for your time. [applause] >> now available, the cspan direct -- congressional directorate. new and returning house and senate members with contact information including twitter addresses, district maps, and committee assignments and information on the white house, supreme court justices, and governors. you can order it online c-

span.org/shop. >> this year's studentcam competition considered washington, d.c. through lens. this is the second prize winner. >> my grandpa who owns this great dealership in a small town. he gives some as to the community and he is such a strong and generous. man to see him the and this position where he had to fear for the security of his family was a big eye opener. it was not until bankruptcy threatens my family that i realized what a big role the government can play in my life. >> the of the group is our auto company. we have been here 15 years. the new vehicles we sell our

buick, gmc and chevrolet and chrysler, dodge, and jeep. all those brands were affected from the bail out because those companies are who we are franchisees' of. it was a perfect storm. you have companies like chrysler and gm that we represent as dealers, their cost structure from 50 years ago has been totally outdated and it was not conducive for this type of environment and certainly not this economic recession. >> the pain being felt in places that rely on our auto industry is not the fault of our workers. they labored tirelessly and desperately want to see their companies succeed. it is not the fault of all the families and communities that supported manufacturing plants throughout the generations. rather, it is a failure of leadership from washington to detroit. union wages were about 25% higher than the imports.

>> gas mileage was another thing, gas efficient vehicles. we were still concentrating on trucks as an industry. that is what the american car market wanted until gas became a problem. >> people were scared to go out and buy products from the big three. >> we are worried about dealers at the retail level. when that came out, traffic slowed and you can understand why. people did not know if they want to spend $25,000 if the company was not going to make it. 1 million jobs would have been in unemployment had these two companies gone bankrupt. ♪ >> this affects main street. i am in a town of 8500 population. there were about 3200 chrysler, dodge, and jeep dealers in

business at the time that would have gone out. imagine driving by here and we have been here 14, 15 years in this town and this lot is empty. >> we have consistently about 50 employees with a $2 million payroll. it would have affected the whole town adversely. >> i was preoccupied with what would happen with my family. i did not realize it would affect other communities on a bigger scale. >> a lot of the smaller markets and even the larger markets, they are huge philanthropists and they get a lot of money locally. they are involved with the college. we doubled the size of the facilities out there twice in the last 10 years. they were also involved with the chamber of commerce and our industrial foundation. they were trying to make salaz

ar a better place to live. >> i talked to my family about how the bankruptcy affected people on the retail level. i want to know how the government could intervene. i went to a university professor and realized how complex the issue was. >> in the fall of 2008, chrysler, ford, general motors approach to government in the bush administration saying that they needed temporary assistance from the government in order to avoid bankruptcy. congress had a significant decision they had to make their do you bailout these companies? do you potentially save the economy by bailing them out? congress has to authorize any money that is spent. it was the united states congress, the house and senate,

that both pass measures that approved the funding. generally, although not entirely, there was democratic support for in the house and senate. generally, there was a republican opposition. the critical breakthrough was when the house passed a measure for the temporary funding in december of 2008. the bush administration gave a temporary loan to the industry if they needed it, about $17 billion. the obama administration later on, i believe in july of 2009 formalized the total amount. it was about $80 billion. >> the federal government provided general motors and chrysler with emergency loans to prevent a sudden collapse at the end of last year. only on the condition they would

develop plans to restructure. in keeping with that agreement, each company has submitted a plan to restructure. >> the automobile task force convened to decide what the best way to reorganize these companies to see if they can be viable in the future. >> the issue was that you actually had president obama removing the ceo of general motors. >> this was controversial because we as a nation are very uncomfortable with the government intervening in our lives. >> the role of government and its actions relating to the government has always been controversial. >> government is the people. they take our taxes and try to

use it in a way that will help the people. >> even though i personally believe in a limited government, this was a decision that probably had to be made in favor of the auto industry. >> if all of us are doing our part, this restructuring, as painful as it will be in the short term, will mark not an end but a new beginning for a great american industry. ♪ >> the bankruptcy shifted my world view because i went from not even caring about what the government did to i need to pay attention to this. it would either save my family or leave my family in financial ruin. luckily, the federal government came in and intervened. they saved a lot of jobs and a lot of families like mine.

>> go to studentcam.org to watch all the winning videos. >> on cspan today, "washington journal" is next. later, live coverage of the sec chairman at the economic club of washington, d.c. president obama holds a town hall meeting on the federal budget deficit at facebook headquarters in palo alto, california. on c-span 2 this morning, a discussion at the jamestown foundation about political unrest in the arab world at 9:00 a.m. eastern. on c-span 3, beginning at 8:30 a.m. eastern, the international institute for strategic studies looks at the military use of unmanned aerial vehicles. on washington journal and 45 minutes, naacp president oho