And the black cold rush was on. Well talk with industry folks as well as Energy Experts about the history in the oil industry as well as its role today. But before we go south to oklahoma well get your take on the countrys Overall Energy policy this morning. What would you change . Here, overall in the federal government about its Energy Policy . The numbers are on the bottom f your screen. Let me begin with information from the Energy Information agency here in washington on how much energy is consumed in the United States. This is based on 2012 figures. Take a look here of how energy is consumed. What type of energies. You can starts dialing in now. Another chart here. Take a look at sources of u. S. Electricity generation based on 2012 figures. Renewable makes up about 12 of our electricity, nuclear 19 , natural gas 30 , and coal about 37 . And then of course weve all heard the stories about production in the United States. Heres one from reuters that came out the beginning of october. Then the wall street journal had a similar story about the United States overtaking russia. And they had this chart in their paper recently. Take a look at where its been and where its going. Claire mor, oklahoma, caller thank you for cspan and thank you for taking my call. My comment is i believe we need a lot more solar focus. Host why is that . Caller well, although im a chemical engineer and i make my living and livelyhood in the petroleum and chemical industry, just for several reasons. Ing out the fact that host sir what do you do in claire more . Caller im a chemical engineer. Host for what company . Caller for a consulting, engineering consulting. Host where is clairemore, oklahoma . Guest just north of tulsa. Host were focusing on cushing. Are you familiar with the area . Guest i am. Caller i am. Host how would you describe it . Caller as far as the whole industry . Host curebbing in particular cushing in particular because theres over 300 storage tanks that dot the land there. Youve got 13 companies in this town of nearly ,000 people in the business of storing the nations oil. Have you ever been there and how would you describe it to people . Caller i have. Its a small town. You can certainly see all the storage tanks and everything in the background. Host thats our focus on todays washington journal. Were going to be talking about the roll that cushing has always played since the early 1900s in the oil industry, the transportation of oil through pipelines and then storing it there in cushing, oklahoma in the socalled tank farms. John, democratic caller. What do you think about our Energy Policy in this country . Caller good morning. What i would change is i would allow the use of domestic natural gas as much as possible. And encourage that. At the same time and i hope you ask your guests, im very excited about your guest. And at the same time, natural gas has fallen in price in the last 55 months. Why wouldnt we put a National Tariff on natural gas, a small amount, maybe 2 per million btus and use that to fund the expansion of solar and wind . I think were missing a huge opportunity here because we have one side fighting any use of fossil fuel including natural gas and the other side saying that wind and solar are ust too expensive. Host you would like to see the government par lay this large supply of natural gas and use it to boost alternative energy . Caller correct. In the last 55 months we have had a paradigm change. 55 months ago, and you can talk to your guest about this because both of his books talk about peak oil and about the concept over the centuries of peak oil which is weve reached our top. We will never produce any more. And then the last 55 months everyone agrees because of natural Gas Production, we now no longer have a supply problem domestically. What we do have is we are not diverse if iing our energy sources. Host all right. Lets take a look at a map put together by the Energy Information agency that shows the areas in our country where you are seeing production increase. Youve probably heard a lot about the backen shale up in north carolina. You can see others across the country as well. Lets go to texas, a republican caller. Caller good morning. I really couldnt hear your question. But my comment would be this. Ive been rough necking on and off for about 12 years. And down here kind of close to houston, last year in 2012 they did 110 billion in importexport out of the port. The only other port close to that was i believe new york where they did 8 billion. This whole notion of peak oil is not true. In the 70s there was a man by the name of Lindsey Williams called the nonenergy crisis. And up in alaska, Atlantic Richfield had hit the largest oil cavity on planet earth and they capped it. So i dont buy into it. We dont need the saudis, we dont need frankly the world needs us and its time we take the training wheels off of our Industrial Complex and let it get going. This is real infrastructure. When you hear these democrats, this is real infrastructure. Blull let trains, water desalination tanks, thinking forward. Thats really thinking forward. Not what these clowns are talking about with their dritives. You know what a real unit of currency is in this world . A barrel of oil. Not a derivative, not a dollar. A barrel of oil. Host all right. Were getting your thoughts this morning on u. S. Energy policy and what would you change . That conversation ahead of our live coverage from curk, oklahoma this morning where we will be talking to industry executives as well as the ng specialist, author of the quest and the prize. And well be getting your thoughts on how the transportation and storage side as well as the production side works here in this country. Well keep taking your phone calls. But first, i want to show you the front page of the Washington Times this morning. The 2013 Election Results are in. Christie in new jersey, mccullive in virginia. And it says here that democrat terry mccallive won by about 40,000 votes or less than 2 Percentage Points out of about 2 million ballots cast on tuesday. He had pulled ahead by as much as 8 Percentage Points. It shows that christie won his bid by 20 points. And the first democratic mayor in new york city was elected for the first time in 20 years. The paper also points out that virginia had the highest turnout is rginia higher than forecast despite the negative tone in campaigning. Well give you more Election Results as we continue here throughout the first part of this mornings washington journal. But were talking to all of you about Energy Policy in the United States and what your thoughts are on that. What would you change . Patricia in libertytyville, illinois. Caller good morning. I am delighted to hear that the United States is increasing Oil Production and that were now nsidered up in the top for production. Im delighted because ilt like to ensure that the United States does not go to war for oil as we have in the past. I was intrigued by the man who said that the real unit of wealth in the world now is a barrel of oil and i would agree with that. Particularly as i know we have gone to war for oil. And i would like to add one other thing. If indeed we can go so far as to regulate our health care, i would like to suggest that our politicians look at regulating oil prices. Oil is just too expensive. Gas is too expensive at the pumps. Its impacting every family. And if they can do that, i lieve that they can regulate health care, i believe they should look at regulating the cost of gas at the pump. Host you might be interested george schultzs piece in wall street journal, former secretary of state, and smith who is the ceo of fedex. They argue this. Those two arguing for an all of the above strategy. Carmen, independent caller. Talking about u. S. Energy policy. What would you change . Caller this is hard to do because Oil Companies are so rich and they have too much influence in our government. They even buy politicians. Theres a man who wrote a book alled vurttur vulttur capitalism. Everywhere they are finding oil more than saudi arabia has. , mean, theres a little place nobody knows where it is, over by i think its well, its over by the cass pan sea i guess. Hillary clinton went over there for a visit. And because they found so much oil over there i guess they want to get involved in that, too. But they say theyre capping off all these wells. Theres a flood of oil. Theres so much oil that the price of oil should be down around 20 cents a gal gallon. Thats whats happening. People are being milked here in the United States like cows. Host what do we do about it . Caller i dont know if we can get the politicians together because i dont know how many are backed by the oil money. Were in deep trouble here if we dont have the connection with our politicians the big money owns them. Were in deep trouble. Were a bunch of slaves here on plantation earth. Host alens next from delaware. Caller good morning. What i would like to see done is, one, end the subsidies to big oil, funnel that money into renewables. From there, what i would like to see is a tariff or a small tax on natural gas and fund that money also into renewables. D lastly, Campaign Finance reform so we can take the big money from the Oil Industries and all out of politics so that politicians would in turn start making legislation for the eople as opposed to making their legislation to big oil and other industries. Host all right. Were asking all of you about u. S. Energy policy in this country. This ahead of our live coverage of cushing, oklahoma. A town of less than 8,000 people but there are 13 companies that run farm tanks in that area. And there are over 300 of those storage tanks that dot the land. This is where the pipes come out of the ground, where oil is stored. And as we told you earlier, the production on the production side of the oil industry, we are slated to surpass russia here to become the number two producer in the world and Bloomberg Business week recently reported that all this oil needs to get stored somewhere. And the largest facility in the country is 60 miles west of catoosa in the small town of cushing. So coming up here in about 10 minutes or so were going to be talking with Oil Transportation storage executives from enbridge, one of the companies there. They have been gracious enough to allow us to have our cameras at their tank farm at their terminal in cushing, oklahoma. And then well also talk with transcanada folks, with Russell Evans, an Energy Specialist at Oklahoma City university. And well also be talking with daniel yergen. All of that coming up here. Back to 2013 Election Results. Front page of the new york imes. The first democrat mayor elected to that city in 20 years. And then you have this from the Washington Post this morning about a special election in alabamas first congressional drict district. The g. O. P. Business wing deals tea party a blow in this runoff. Heres the detroit free press. Lso the chicago tribune. The denver post this morning. And then the globe and mail this morning. Then the Richmond Times dispatch. Here is terry from last nights victory speech. The truth is this election was never a choice between democrats and republicans. It was a choice about whether virginia would continue the mainstream bipartisan tradition that has served us so well over the last decade. At a time when washington was often broken, just think about what virginia has been able to accomplish when we work together. Under governor mark warner we preserved our triplea bond rating and he made the single largest investment in k12 education in virginias history. Under governor tim kaine, we were honored as the best state to do business, the best managed state, and he prudently guided us through the great recession. And let me say this. Under governor bob mcdonald, our unemployment is one of the lowest on the east coast, and we passed the first transportation funding in 27 years with bipartisan support. Now, during the next four years it will be my obligation and honor to continue that tradition. The democrat, terry mcallive in virginia there nd chris christie. U. S. A. Today. Below that, the piece for the u. S. A. Today with the headline, warning flags tor tea party and democrats in 2014. Show you a little bit about what governor christie had to say last night. We dont always agree with each other, new jersey. Some folks dont agree with some of the things i do, and certainly they dont agree with some of the things i say sometimes. But they know they never have to wonder they never have to wonder. When they walked into the voting booth today they didnt say, hey, i wonder who this guy is and what he stands for, what he is willing to fight for, what he is willing to do when the chips are down. You can agree with me or you can disagree with me, but i will never stop leading the state i love. The people of new jersey have given me much more than i could ever hope to give back to them. They have given me hope, they have given me faith, and they have given me their trust. And it is with that hope, with that opt mix, that faith, and that trust that we together confront the next four years of tupet for our opportunity for our state. I know that tonight a disspirited america, angry with their dysfunctional government in washington [cheers and pplause] looks to new jersey to say, is what i think happening really happening . Are people really coming together . Host governor christie last night after beating his opponent by 20 points in new jersey. Some saying that he is an alternative to the tea party in 2016. Back to our question for all of you. What would you change about. S. Energy policy . Brian walsh wrote the country is undergoing a power surge. Jim in virginia, republican caller. Caller i agree that we need to get more Renewable Energy. I just think people are going about it in the wrong way. Everybodys saying we need to have the government subsidize it and all. What i think we need to do is the government needs to say that they are going to have all of their installations go to Renewable Energy. So like anacostia might go to some kind of tidal energy and downtown d. C. Might do the urban wind. What this will do is it will cause so many people to get into the business to try to get these contracts that it will bring the price down for the general public. And thats something that can be done without any any president can issue that kind of edict and you dont have to go through congress to say what kind of power we use. Host this conversation continues. Were about to go outside of washington, d. C. But first let me tell you what is happening today in the city. Kathleen sebelius, the hfs secretary is back up on capitol hill today before the Senate Finance committee. And we will have live coverage of that hearing here on cspan at 10 00 a. M. Eastern time. So up next, live from cushing, oklahoma, to talk about its history in the oil industry and the role it plays today. But first, a little bit of what happened in cushing, oklahoma back in the early 1900s. Cspan recently vizzitied in september and spoke with a longtime producer on the impact the industry has had and how it has changed over the years. Where are we stand right now in oklahoma . This is the site of the whool wheeler number one. It was the discovery we will for the Cushing Oil Field drilled in 1912. This actual we will here is a redrill of the original we will because the original well would have been a cable fuel drilling, would have had problems with it over the years just by the nature of cable. So this would be a rotary hole here. And this is the site. So theres a plaque right over there that talks about this being a discovery well of the cushing field. After it was discovered, what did this place look like . What happens happening here . This place was a tent city. There was no it wouldnt have been called the cushing field. But cushing was the only town in existence when this field was discovered. Right now theres oil tons and drum rights and sham rocks all sprange up overnight because this well was discovered here. It was a tent city. As you drove through there, its very hoil and it would have been hilly and it would have been a nightmare trying to plan this city. But it was like gold fever here. The black gold rush was on. And all these things sprung up overnight, actually. And how much was the cushing field producing in its heyday . Guest it was the Largest Oil Field in the world and it produced 300,000 barrels out of probably a 5 by 15 mile area. Which would be 75 square miles produced 300,000 barrels. The whole state of oklahoma does between 200 and 300 today. So it produced more than the whole state does. In fact, in the early 1900s, what role did cushing play overall in the countrys economy when it came to oil . Well, cushing was you know, the figures i get out of these books i read all my life. But the price of oil was somewhere between 1 and 1. 5 a barrel and it drove the preist down to 25 cents a barrel. There was such a glut. They didnt know how to store it. They stored it in earthen pits. Gushers that you see were real things. The environment lists would go crazy back then but no one knew how to do that. I understand five commercial skimmers that skimmed the oil off the rivers back then. They didnt know how to contain it when the infancy of the oil industry. So all those tanks over there, cushing had rail heads, cushing was an existing town. And they shipped a lot of oil over there during world war one to