we are pleased to have jack gerard to speak on behalf of the american petroleum institute and explain why what i said is the case. he is not alone. you can listen to rex tillerson who wrote urging ratification of the treaty. listen to the head of shell oil company that employs over 22,000 people in this country and strongly supports joining the law of the sea. marvin was unable to join us today, but he has submitted testimony for the record. in his full testimony, we place in the record as if right here in full. a short excerpt. if the united states were to become a party to the convention, it could participate in the internationally recognized process for claiming extended continental shelf and the rights over oil and gas which would provide legal certainty for accessing and developing those energy resources. without this clear claim, our company would not find investment conditions favorable. finally, we turn to manufacturing. as many of you know, rare earth minerals are critical to a large part of modern manufacturing. rare earth minerals are an essential component of communication

. >> senator, just one comment and jack gerard may want to mention, while there aren't many companies down on the deep part of the shelf bringing up the rare earth materials, many companies are preparing to do it. you just don't go out there with a boat and throw something over the side. this is a huge, complicated, technical issue, and there's a lot of money being invested by

thomas donohue chamber of commerce representing broadly these industries, jack gerard ceo and president of the american petroleum institute of which all of our major producers are partners. president and ceo of the association of manufacturers and will macadam, chairman and ceo of verizon. so gentlemen, welcome to the. as the next before. i join you in welcoming our distinguished panel of industry leaders. i appreciate especially their efforts on behalf of law of the sea and their willingness to explain how the convention will help them create private sector jobs and contribute to the growth of the united states economy. every major motion industry including fishing, telecommunications, oil and natural gas, a drilling contractor should support the united states for the law of the sea treaty. this is not a recent development. ocean industry support the invention has been virtually unanimous going back to 2003 when the foreign relations committee first initiated a process the resulted in unanimous kennedy voted favorably on that occasion. a few years later the foreign relations committee