first of all swreshgs the honorable carrie ann jones, assistant secretary of state, bureau of oceans and international and environmental and scientific affairs and also mr. jeffrey wright who is director office of energy projects at the federal energy regulatory commission. so once again i welcome you all to the hearing. each one of you will be recognized for five minutes, and then we'll have questions for you at that time. so ms. jones i will recognize you for your five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and good morning mr. chairman and -- >> be sure and turn your microphone on. >> oh. okay. i think it's on. good morning, chairman whitfield, ranking member rush and others on the committee on energy and power. i appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today. the u.s. department of state receives the application for keystone xl pipeline project in september 2008. we undertook a thorough rigorous and transparent process to determine werther issuance of a president's permit for this pipeline was in the national interests -- >> would you please pull the mike closer to you. tha

as assistant secretary of state carrie ann a jones stated at last week's hearing regarding her agency's recommendation, and i quote: that decision was based on the fact that the exact route of the pipeline has yet to be identified in critical areas. as a result, there are unresolved concerns for a full range of issues including energy security, foreign policy, economic effect, health, safety and environmental impacts among other considerations. ms. jones went on to say the legislation raises serious questions about legal authorities, questions of continuing -- [inaudible] and all of the state and local and environmental and land use management authority over the pipeline and, mr. chairman, i want to emphasize this, it overrides foreign policy and national security considerations indicated by cross-border permit which are properly -- [inaudible] by the state department. mr. chairman, with such dire warnings against this bill, i think we owe it to the american public to fully explain the consequences of this legislation to insure that the public interest is protected. and with that, i yie