cherry and fran ulmer, from the university of alaska at anchorage. the act sets a high standard for openness and transparency. today's hearing is being held in this public forum and is being broadcast live via video feed. before hand control of the meeting over, i will review today's agenda. our first panel will begin focusing on decision making within the unified command. we will have five panelists. after a short break, at 11:15 a.m., a panel member to will focus on the amount and state of the oil with five panelists. we will take a short break for lunch and at 1:30 p.m., we reconvened with panel 3 on the use of dispersants with three panelists. add to 30 5:00 p.m., panel four will focus on the future of onshore drilling, and we will have three panelists there. at 335 pm, panel 5 lil 0 -- focus on the response in the arctic. we will have five panelists. after a short break, we convene at 5:00 p.m. to begin the public comment period, and at 5:30 p.m., we will adjourn. any member of the public would like to submit a comment made do so via the web sit

cherry [unintelligible] and fran ulmer, from the university of alaska at anchorage. the act sets a high standard for openness and transparency. today's hearing is being held in this public forum and is being broadcast live via video feed. before hand control of the meeting over, i will review today's agenda. our first panel will begin focusing on decision making within the unified command. we will have five panelists. after a short break, at 11:15 a.m., a panel member to will focus on the amount and state of the oil with five panelists. we will take a short break for lunch and at 1:30 p.m., we reconvened with panel 3 on the use of dispersants with three panelists. add to 30 5:00 p.m., panel four will focus on the future of onshore drilling, and we will have three panelists there. at 335 pm, panel 5 lil 0 -- focus on the response in the arctic. we will have five panelists. after a short break, we convene at 5:00 p.m. to begin the public comment period, and at 5:30 p.m., we will adjourn. any member of the public would like to submit a comment made do so via the web sit

. >> commissioner ulmer, that is one of the three major questions will which we will address in the report with respect to oil spill response plans. one of the things he is doing is looking at the question of worst case this charges. as we move forward with our program on shallow water drilling, it has been an issue which has been addressed there. it is something with which we recognize is a very foundational issue as we move forward with respect to developing oil and gas in the ocean. what happened in the post-exxon valdez days is that there was a national sense shared by republicans and democrats alike, multiple administrations, multiple secretaries of the interior especially when dealing with oil spill response and a fine quality of oil -- finite quality of will. what we've found out from the 75 days of the oil into the ocean is it was very difficult to quantify in the first place which brings in a whole set of lessons to be learned relative to instrumentation and other things we are learning on but also the difficulty of being able to respond effectively to it. that is one thing the di

. >> commissioner ulmer, that is one of the three major questions will which we will address in the report with respect to oil spill response plans. one of the things he is doing is looking at the question of worst case this charges. as we move forward with our program on shallow water drilling, it has been an issue which has been addressed there. it is something with which we recognize is a very foundational issue as we move forward with respect to developing oil and gas in the ocean. what happened in the post-exxon valdez days is that there was a national sense shared by republicans and democrats alike, multiple administrations, multiple secretaries of the interior especially when dealing with oil spill response and a fine quality of oil -- finite quality of will. what we've found out from the 75 days of the oil into the ocean is it was very difficult to quantify in the first place which brings in a whole set of lessons to be learned relative to instrumentation and other things we are learning on but also the difficulty of being able to respond effectively to it. that is one thing the di