getting other companies to stop selling -- tele-communications to iran. some other members are interested in looking at the connections with china, latin america, russia. but some other countries that have been some what steps is to -- somewhat skeptical about sanctioning iran -- looking at those countries. looking rather at going back and maybe advancing some of the sanctions ideas that have been around anyway. i will stop there. >> thanks very much. it is a pleasure to be back at heritage. and has been a couple of months. as someone who was part of the formal set of experts to look at this problem said at that would be useful to contextualize for the arguments here and those watching a home while we were thinking about. the challenges that iran poses to the united states and countries in europe and asia is not just about the nuclear program. that is obviously the important one. on the nuclear program the ground assumption we started from is that iran is fairly well along in the process of creating an offensive capability if it wants to. there clearly la

he led telamon -- tele- communications teams and growth strategy for the advisory board. he, too, has appeared on television ads cnbc, bloomberg tv, and other media outlets. he has trained as a lawyer. he was previously senior adviser for energy policy at fbr capital markets. he left there to form a clearer view energy -- clearview energy partners with partners from nasa. the work on projections of what is next in washington, an analysis of how government policy affects energy fundamentals. we have a wide spectrum of age and experience. we are delighted to have you all here. now, senator wicker has joined us. we will see what opening statements you have for us. >> i understand, mr. chairman, that you're being magnanimous and forgoing an opening statement? even so, i think if you'll give me a couple of minutes -- let me say about how pleased i am that we are doing best. we all remember this time last year. we were in the midst of an energy crisis, paying $4 for a gallon of gasoline. of course, americans were seeing their utility bills skyrocket. we have not made any policy