so, while we are waiting the arrival of lisa jackson, i'm going to move ahead with the hearing. we are so pleased that dr. larry robinson is here from noaa and when he concludes hopefully ms. jackson is here, and if not, we will go to those from the community and then go forward to hearing from the able administrator from the epa who i traveled to the gulf with. this hearing is now going to come to order. it is an official hearing of the commerce, justice, science appropriations subcommittee, and the purpose of the hearing is to determine what is it that we know about dispersants, what is the impact that it is having on people, marine life and on communities. what do we know? can we count on what we think we know, and what do we need to know more? and as we get ready to put our bill for fiscal year 2011 together, we want to look at, are there things that we need to add in the appropriations committee to either the noaa budget or encourage it at epa and others to see what we do. our number one concern is the safety of the american people. safety of the air they breathe, the food t

so, while we are waiting the arrival of lisa jackson, i'm going to move ahead with the hearing. we are so pleased that dr. larry robinson is here from noaa and when he concludes hopefully ms. jackson is here, and if not, we will go to those from the community and then go forward to hearing from the able administrator from the epa who i traveled to the gulf with. this hearing is now going to come to order. it is an official hearing of the commerce, justice, science appropriations subcommittee, and the purpose of the hearing is to determine what is it that we know about dispersants, what is the impact that it is having on people, marine life and on communities. what do we know? can we count on what we think we know, and what do we need to know more? and as we get ready to put our bill for fiscal year 2011 together, we want to look at, are there things that we need to add in the appropriations committee to either the noaa budget or encourage it at epa and others to see what we do. our number one concern is the safety of the american people. safety of the air they breathe, the food t

lisa jackson. >> thank you, and good morn, chairman. thank you for having me and i do look forward and seeing rankk member shelby and other members if they can join us. thanyou for inviting me to talk about dispersants and epa's role. epa is the only acronymly use for environmental protection agency in responding t the deepwater horizon rig explosion. i want to start by expressing my condolences to those families who lost members of their family in the explosion we owe them our very best. as we know efforts by bp to stop the oil release continu today. while the environmental disaster that the gulf of mexico is facing right now has no easy answers, epa is committed to doing the job, protecting the communities the natural environment and human health from the spill, itself, as well as any concerns resulting from the response to the spill. additionally at the president's direction, i have personally traveled to the gulf, the region i did grow up and still consider my hometown, new orleans, six times over the past few months. i will be leav

at a senate hearing last week, environmental protection agency chief lisa jackson explained the dilemma she faced in deciding to allow their use. >> because there are scientific unknowns, we had to make decisions that are a series of tradeoffs. and basically, in common language, it was either nothing or in moderation. and my best judgment was that it should be in moderation, but we >> reporter: luann white is a toxicologist at tulane university in new orleans, and she's convinced that corexit-- used on the surface-- is better than leaving the oil to foul beaches. she says that headlines about its toxicity are overblown. >> there's a lot of misconceptions about the dispersants because there's been a lot on television, on radio, in the newspapers calling them being highly toxic. while i wish we were in a situation where we didn't have to use dispersants, they are not the most toxic compound. they're metabolized. they're broken down very well by various organisms. and what that means is that our bodies can handle them. as you can see, this is oil with corexit, etc. >> reporter: some scient

lisa jackson will be speaking, head of the epa. this is at 10:00 eastern. >> a pentagon spokesperson says the u.s. will conduct military exercises with south korea despite objections from china. he also talked about a plan favored by general david petraeus to create local security forces in afghanistan. this is a little less than an hour. >> good afternoon. good to see you all. let me begin with a brief announcement about the upcoming trip. i am happy to get to your questions. there are travels to seoul, south korea. on july 21, the secretaries will participate in talks at the republic of korea. it will be the first meeting of them and the talks will address the full range of security and allianz issues including the development of a new chance for implementation plan agreed by president obama agreed earlier this month as well as other enhancements to the military readiness. in the wake of the unprovoked attack of north korea in march, president obama directed this department to further strengthen its cooperation with the republic

host: any chance that lisa jackson will be traveling to the hill to try and prod the senators to gethis thing passed? guest: yes and no. the president has been talking about energy a fair amount lately including in the oval office speech he gave on the oil spill. he met with a group of senators at the white house the other day. the administration has walked a fine line here. what they have said is that they want climate change legislation and they want to price carbon. the have also indicated in love themselves a fair amount of wiggle room. that is their position and they want comprehensive climate change in legislation, but then the follow that up by saying the recognize there are a lot of good ideas out there and they want to work with both sides. i think they're trying to negotiating a scale back, but i think they need some political space to sign a bill that has no climate change provisions in it. host: ben geman with "the hill" and blogs on their environment and energy blog. you can find those for "the hill" on thehill.com. jacksonville, fla., on our line for republicans. go ahe

guest: well, i'm going to quote lisa jackson the e.p.a. administrator when she was in the gulf over the weekend. her quote was you can look at the water, you can use common sepns sense. no laboratory will tell you whether the water safe. you can tell. if you see tar balls floating in the water, if you see tar balls on the beach i wouldn't have the dog running all over the place nor a kid or any human being. i would sa-- i would use sandal. but check with the local health department to see their recommendations. maybe it is time for the dog to run the grassy areas. chris: blacksburg, virginia. independent line. you are on with dr. john howard with the national institute for occupational safety and health. we are talking about public health and the gulf of mexico oil spill. john: one of my biggest concerns about the whole situation, not exactly on topic but really important to address for the futu future, i have read that there is an acoustic switch that could have been used that would have cut the leak off below the source or below the grou

guest: i am going to " lisa jackson. she is the epa administrator. you can look at the water. you can use common sense. no laboratory is going to tell you whether the water is safe or not. you can tell. if you see tar balls floating on the water, i would not have the dog running all over the place nor any human being. certainly, if the beach is contaminated, you should check with your local help department, see what their recommendations are. be careful. host: va., and dependent line. you are on with dr. john howard. we're talking about public health and the gulf of mexico oil spill. caller: one of my biggest concerns is that i have read that there is an acoustic switch that could have been installed that would have cut a week off below the source. the companies involved decided that it was too expensive to put it in. it cost about half a million dollars. caller: we are talking about public health. i do not think that dr. howard -- caller: good morning. i have a question about dispersion. why did they need to use the dispersant? i could never let it come to the surface? it was

guest: i am going to " we saw jackson, the epa administrator -- i am going to quote lisa jackson, thedministrator. you can look at the water and use common sense. no laboratory will tell you if the water is safe or not. you can tell. if you see tar balls floating in the water or on the beach. i would use symbols. for dogs, that is more difficult. if the beach is contaminated, you should check with your local help department and see what their recommendations are. be careful. it may be time for the dog to run along the grassy areas instead of the sand. host: tyler on the independents'line, you are on with dr. john howard. caller: one of my biggest concerns about the whole situation that i think is important to address for the future is that i have. there is an acoustic switch -- i have read there is an acoustic switch that would have cut it off polo the source, below the ground. the companies involved decided it was too expensive. the cost about half a million dollars. host: we're talking about public health with the oil spill. guest: that is all little outside my field of expertise. h