Research and our system of private properties have produced a situation where we have a massive advantage over europe and asia in terms of our natural gas. It creates a better economy and that reduces the debt. There is a headline predicting we will be producing more oil than saudi arabia beginning in 2020. This is something almost on imagined 10 years ago. Unimagined 10 years ago. What is the role of the federal government . To do things that encouraged the results. To follow up on the fiscal cliff. You can solve this fiscal problem if you grow our role to position relative to everybody elses. A big problem is the percentage of Government Spending is more than its should be related to total gdp. If there is an easier for millet in the history of economics that formula ever in the history of america economics that more American Energy equals more american jobs, i dont know what it is. It is all the jobs you have if you of a reliable supply of energy. The front page of the the wall street journal indicates a difficulty of connecting this cheap product we have in natural gas. We thought we would run out naturalgas as a country. Connecting this cheap product with a more expensive market and getting it overseas. If we could become energy self sufficient, that does not mean we would not buy on the world market, but if we could meet our needs in the north american markets, almost all of that money comes back to us. We have no better trading partner than canada. Nafta has increased the trading capacity of mexico. It has gone somewhere from the 40 range and a growing and, 57 neighborhood to the high 40s to the mid70ss now, and they are quickly catching up with canada. When you buy energy in north america, they give you the money back. That was a lot to solve the problems. If you make your position better as a nation, suddenly, your numbers begin to where they need to be relative to the rest of the economy. You said this is one of the most important issues facing america. Why do you think it is such an important issue . Transportation and the availability, the means to get there, what we do with it, it is without a question in my mind, being a marine and an infantry officer, it is the most important problem facing the United States for several reasons. First, i do not believe that the American Public truly understands the transportation in the availability of the resources to solve the problem. The transportation problem and the availability of the resources to solve the problem. I think we need an Education Program by learned scholars, such as those in this audience to help us in getting this word out to america. I think it is essential because it is coming on very fast. There are things that are happening that we take for granted. As an example, we take for granted the fact that we can move thousands and thousands of marines, sailors, soldiers and have the equipment without any burden to carry economy, not true. The truth of the matter is is a tremendous burden to our economy to have a National Security policy that defends the country that we love so much. Without having the ability and willingness to get out and give the American Public forums such as this in helping giving us answers to some of the very difficult questions that they ask, i want to take this opportunity to think robby for what he does. Thanks robbie for what he does. I met him some years ago when he found my office in an office building. He came in and we had a chat and i said, my goodness, this fellow knows what he is talking about and he has never disappointed me whatsoever. What we need to do is explain to the American Public things such as the fact that you cannot move thousands of troops and their equipment down all the other things that go along with it free of charge. It has a price tag that is quite large, but it is in the best interests of the United States. To answer your question, i think we need a very cultured energy Cogent Energy policy that we, the people in this room like you and me, we can inform the American Public that this is a problem and this is a way we propose to fix it. Thank you. You are passionate about this subject, i can tell. Lets talk more about the military. You talk about moving people and machinery. There are some of the other esteemed leaders of americas military here. What about American National interests in other parts of the world . And general conway, how does that change if we have an abundance of energy that we are able to harness in this country . It changes it. I would say my sense is that we are on a long drive. As opposed to grasping in the dark as we may have thought of 10 years ago, we are driving into sunlight. As has been pointed out, we still depend on foreign sources for about 40 of our energy requirements. In my mind, that still creates a critical vulnerability, maybe even a central gravity. 2013 will be a very interesting year and it will be a long time before we are totally energy dependent. Energy independent. To your question and, i think we need to be conscious of what decisions we can make as a nation. Today, our economy as much more consideration on the part of great military minds than ever before. As we look to give it to the pivot to the pacific for good and just reasons, we do so with full knowledge that we get our primary raw resource from the middle east, from africa, from the americas, and to a lesser degree, from europe. We need to be conscious of what the requirement is as we make military decisions. This vulnerability you we will phase, i believe we will for some time. We also have an economic competitor and a partner in china. They have a voracious appetite for Natural Resources and were looking at new ways to get these in our own backyard, and maybe i will ask you this question, admiral. Admiral, maybe i will ask you this question. How important is the china factor in America Energy programs Going Forward . I will talk to doubt, but i would like to mention a few puffs things about this report that may not have come out in your opening remarks. We definitely advocating opening of drilling in the United States where we cannot, but there is a wherever we can, but there is a very strong part of this report that says it has to be done safely and we know how to do it safely. That is one contribution of those of us who have served in the armed forces, we do a lot of dangerous stuff in the armed forces, fuel, nuclear power, explosives. The way we do that safely is a high standards, rigid enforcement, and very professional inspectors to do it. We strongly recommend applying this model to regulatory body so that we can do this safely, so that we can do oil retractions safely. That we can do safely. The general and i live in pennsylvania and we want our water to be drinkable, our streams usable, but we believe firmly that can be done if you enforce these standards. The second thing is that we do advocate a federal role and a nonpremarket to try to open up possibilities to this country for more different kinds of energy, but we are definitely concentrating on creating the conditions part of this. We are not talking about creating winners and losers in developed industries. Were talking about opening up to alternatives to todays Petroleum Based internal Combustion Engines so that we reduce our National Security dependence on the oil that is coming from, in many cases, unstable countries and also regimes that do not wish us well, and quite the opposite. China and india are causing the trend that will drive the cost of petroleum up, so no matter what we do, the balance of payments is worse, so from the economic point of view, it is chinas role as they seek to achieve wealth and prosperity, which they want and which we want them to have that causes us to look elsewhere for these alternatives so that we are not hurt by their success but we have alternatives for ourselves. Can i have you weigh in on the importance for how these new trends in Energy Production may change where we are acting in what were doing in the rest of the world . There is a lot of talk about if this will change our focus in the middle east, but countries that are self sufficient still pay the same market price than the world market, so that will not change. We will still have interest in the middle east and some and this is their we will still have some emphasis there but it gives us more leverage, better options. It improves our flexibility, of this rebalancing of our National Security policies in the pacific, an area where we need to pay closer attention that i hope can be done in a constructive way of as we develop our relationship with china. I think it gives us more flexibility, leverage, options and it hopes with resilience. Overall, the foundation of military power, no matter how great and good we are, the bedrock, the thing we build our National Security leverage on is a well functioning economy. We need to show the world we can get our economy under control, reduce the deficit, and begin to show leadership in various areas of new technology that demonstrated here to the rest of the world. Kohl will always be there. Coal is always going to be there. Theres lots of work there. All the sales will help, i think, of leverage our capability and give us more options. Let me bring you in. 92 of American Transportation is run on petroleum. With this new landscape for Energy Production of, how are we doing on diversifying different kinds of things that are running our transportation . So far, it is going slow. Something that was deeply focused on was something note senator alexander said earlier. We need to find more and use less. I think youre asking about the use less part. The extension of the changing fuel efficiency standards was one thing, but we believe fervently in the need to diversify away from using petroleum for transportation and given that it represents 70 of our use of petroleum to begin with. With the change in technology and the access to so much homegrown natural gas, we can use that and we can also use the development of electricity and its usability in automobiles and light trucks. What about the role of the government . Somebody has to be making sure we are not doing Dangerous Things in small, enclosed places. Find more coming years last, and someone has to make sure we are not doing Dangerous Things, as the admiral pointed out. I am a private sector guy, and i believe in the application of private and free markets for the development of our country, but there are times it is clear when the government has an unfortunate role to play. In freds introductory comments, the argument was very clear. The market for oil, on which we depend, is not a free market. The only way we can respond to that is an activist approach. That does not mean it has to be very expensive, but we need to develop a coherent policy. The fact that are recommended proposals are supported by people typically on the right side of the dial and others are typically supported by the left should suggest to you that this is not an ideological game. This is about trying to come up with a set of proposals that are good for our country overall. The lack of ideological support should be viewed as a positive. I want to bring in Gene Sperling nice to see you. Thanks. I apologize for the fact that i do not control my life for scheduled to much. Nothing going on in your world. Now that we have brought you from the edge of the fiscal cliff, lets talk about these for a moment. You have seen the headlines that say, saudi america. We have this new found richness, new technologies to find energy. I have seen some estimates up to 3 million new jobs directly related to the energy boom. Is it real . How unfortunate of a driver will that be for the economy . When youre sitting down trying to figure out what growth will look like in this country, how does a factor in . In a few ways. Number one, if theres one thing i feel more optimistic than i did one decade ago, i had a book out around 2006 and i felt like, when you are out making the case for why there should be more location as opposed to china and india, you felt like you how the wind in your face. You have great meetings but then they pull your side and say, thats a powerful argument, but were moving this to bangalor next week. There is much more of an economic case for people to be relocating and bring jobs back. Some of that is about the way it is structured between us and china and some of it is energy. No doubt the future of natural gas is just making the price calculation more attractive to someone thinking about a new location and, in a planned of being in the United States. Energy, the lower cost a promised naturalgas is a promised economic factor in location decisions making it more competitive. That point was driven less by democrats and republicans and really the Consulting Community making this case to their clients and that is now getting out. I think that is one thing. Secondly, as we have seen, and others would say, we are not dependent on foreign oil as much as the Global Oil Markets. When oil markets are volatile, it brings in volatility to our economy. We felt it both in 2011 and an 2012. Buchanan prevented, but to have the volatility have such an impact, we were fortunate. We put in a payroll tax cut that would cushion Peoples Consumer spending a bit, but when you are in a tenuous time, as we has been the, the fact that the volatility can have such an effect on Consumer Confidence, we all know that americans are over affected by Consumer Confidence factors. They are bothered by sudden spikes in gasoline prices more than economics tell you that they should be. And, obviously, jobs related to the actual increase in oil and natural Gas Production and have an industry is based off of alternative fuels, a think that is all very productive. One thing i want to say since we are in this time where no one seems to be getting along is that, one place where i see a real bipartisan agreement, they have an excellent bill on electric vehicles where they have an idea that maybe you have already talked about, but i believe so much in that type of thing. To be able to show something working somewhere from the first time 60 minutes or cnn and is able to do a story where you show a community where it is easy and the incentives are there two years on alternative vehicle, i know what will happen. Every mayor will see that, really the people come and say, why cannot we do this . Having this deployment Community Proposal that senator blogged and alexander have as, i think, the type of thing you have to do to create momentum. You have to show success and usability. You look at that in the 54. 5 goal by 2025 in there, and i think that creates real momentum. All of these things are good for certainty, good for bringing jobs back, and creating Economic Activity as this becomes the place to not only explore and their research on but the ploy alternative vehicles and alternative vehicle technology. I will seize on that with the whiff of bipartisanship because we will not smell that in the next three weeks. Lets talk about the deployment idea. The idea is for the government to help create models to see what works and how it can work. I think he said it very well. You have the story about how this community is responding to this infrastructure that makes it easier to have an electric car or natural gaspowered car and you see what happens. Senator Brown Alexander has been a real leader in this and he even has an electric car. He is going the distance here, walking the walk. Thats the kind of thing government can do. Government can do a lot on the regulatory side to slow things down if you forget to have effective costbenefit analysis, but it can do a lot on the project side to really find something that works and the Community Becomes the laboratory for change and that others can then model. You do not have to do it everywhere and if you can show in water to a location that there really work. That is the driving force behind the idea of that lamar has been a significant spokesperson for. Do like that car . I do like it. I have driven my leaf. For a lit for a yearanda half. I live in this building in a plug in the wall when i go home at night. Thats all i have to do. Deployment communities are a good idea. Sometimes the government can have a demonstration project that makes a difference. They did a hydraulic factory and we have had fracking are around forever. Three things made a difference in it. One was a huge to demonstrate that you could do it in a big way which was helpful. The second was the laboratory inventing 3d mapping. It was the entrepreneurs and the people who was the land that made the difference. Iolite the deployment communities, but i prefer research and development. I take the 14 billion and we would spend on windmills and put it on energy research. Thats a mature technology, but if you want to sell a lot of those lefs the key is to get the cost from 30,000 down to 20,000 and the key would be a 500,000 mile battery. This Little Agency in the department of energy has a Research Project that they are funding which is a double the density of lithium batteries for cars. Thats exactly where we ought to go. They would also have a project to turn a microbe into commercial fuel. And that would work, thats the holy grail of energy. It is also working on solar power and 1 per kilowatt installed. Thats precisely what we should do and does not cost much in federal money. We spend 6 billion per year on energy research. We could double that over