and elizabeth kolbert writes about energy and the environment for the "new yorker."'s the author of "field notes from a catastrophe," a book about climate change. jason grumet, tell me a little bit about what we heard today. it's stunning to remember that it's been one year since the coal accident in west virginia and within the last year we've also seen... the last month we've seen what happened in japan and within the last year what happened in the gulf. has that changed our energy policy? should it? >> clearly it has to. i think these events are shocking but in some ways they're not surprising. we've seen analogs to these over the last generation, three mile island, major oil spills in santa barbara and alaska, unrest in the middle east leading to price spikes in the '70s. i think what we've just seen is all of these events essentially happening in the last 12 months. this creates clearly a new urgency for developing new sources. it also suggests that we not just need additional plans. we're not lacking for energy plans. what we've been lacking is the ability to c