on his journey westward, brigham young crossed paths with the famous american mountain man jim bridgerim, “mr. young, i would give a thousand dollars if i knew an ear of corn could be ripened in the great basin.” then in july 1847, the pioneers saw this valley with their own eyes. it was so beautiful that one member of the party proclaimed, “weak and weary as i am, i would rather go a thousand miles farther than remain in such a forsaken place as this.” and yet, almost 180 years later, our utah desert has pulled off the most miraculous upset, the land has blossomed as promised, and our home has become the envy of the earth, and a worldwide destination. we stand on the shoulders of giants. our ancestors irrigated farms, excavated minerals, built homes and neighborhoods, powered cities, and connected this continent by rail. in the face of adversity, they built. they built here. and my friends and fellow citizens, if there is one thing you take away from my remarks tonight, please let it be this simple refrain -- we must build. scripture -- and the 60's pop band the byrds -- tell us that

i want to thanks james phillips and the wheatley institute at brigham young for co-sponsoring today. in fact, this event is james' idea so anything goes wrong, you can blame him. with that i'll turn it over to my aei colleague adam white for our first panel. >> welcome, everybody, and i just want to echo naomi's greetings for all who are here today and everyone watching online either now or at a later time. looking forward to the questions and the conversation. our conversation started last week, one of the usual pre-panel prep calls and in the course of thinking through this morning's conversation, somebody, i can't remember if it was elizabeth or marcy pointed out that 2025 is the 100th anniversary year, centennial of the famous supreme court course, pierce versus society of sisters, one of the earlier cases, the supreme court proclaimed the broad right of parents to control to the extent the education of their children and a famous line where the court says the child is not the mere creature of the state, these who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right and high duty to

brigham mccown, a senior fellow and director of initiative on american energy security at the hudson institute. i want to thank you all for being here. and before we recognize our first witness this little housekeeping with the box in front of you, you'll see the light will be green. at 1 minute it'll go yellow, and when your time expires after 5 minutes it will go red. if you could finish up, we'd appreciate it. what we'd like you to do is pull that mic up close and turn it on and we're ready to go. the chair recognizes ms. eversole for five minutes for the opening statement. ms. eversole: good morning. thank you very much, mr. chairman, chairman lotta, chairman guthrie, ranking member castor, ranking member, and members of the subcommittee. my name is amanda eversole and , i'm the executive vice president and chief advocacy officer at the american petroleum institute. i'm honored to be invited by this committee to discuss the profound opportunities that we have by working together to build a better energy future for all americans. api is a national trade association representing al

i am brigham, a senior fellow at the hudson institute and director of the initiative on american energy security. i am also professor and executive in residence at miami university, oxford, ohio. one who did it in my personal capacity i've been blessed to add a portfolio career over the last four decades during which i've worked for cabinet members of both political parties. i served in a military, have run businesses as well as my current work in academic and nonprofit sectors. energy as has been testified to today is the glue that binds everything together. it empowers our cities, our factories, our commercial buildings, our farms and our homes here energy is the lifeblood of this nation. it enables us to both reach for the stars and travel to 16 family and friends. life is not sustainable without energy and lots of it. at our core energy is hardest for the betterment of society and throughout human history global energy demands have only risen. this is especially true of advanced countries where energy usage is in many ways a reflection of the wealth and strength of a nation. keep vo