Thank you, Madam Chair.

I think this is a very, very important topic.

I've drafted legislation that would authorize the EPA and the States to issue so called Good Samaritan permits.

I think it's fair to say that before that bubble emerged that EIA may have failed to appreciate the connection between the financial and physical oil markets.

I think it's something that he richly deserves.

We've been joined by Senator McCain and by Ranking Member Murkowski.

I think it is a very good reminder that we need to be very careful about how we think about our financial institutions in this country because they are not all the same and not all of them contributed to the situation that we now find…

It would seem to me--that is an interesting point, Mr. Johnson, on the criteria question...

But only the ones that deserve to fail should be the ones that fail, and if there are viable banks...

With respect to 'too-big-to-fail,' which people have talked about, from the point of view of the people living in Northeast Colorado who lost what to many people would seem was a very small bank, that bank was too big to fail for them.

So, it is my hope that you will find ways of coming together and moving this legislation forward.

Those projects alone will create some 50,000 jobs here in the United States of America.

And those key principles are, as President Obama has often said, first of all reducing our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, second of all, creating millions of new energy jobs here in the United States of America, and third…

It is about reducing our dangerous dependence on foreign oil.

Let me first say that the energy and climate change legislation that is before you that you will be dealing with really, in so many ways, is a signature issue of the 21st century and for our world.

I just had a couple of questions. The first goes back to this question of the clearing of centralized contracts versus customized contracts...

I completely agree with that, and I think that as we proceed here with this and much of the other regulation that we are talking about, we need to be very careful that we aren't creating perverse incentives that end up doing more harm than…

The American people are so tired of having us look in the rearview mirror and say what happened while there is all this carnage out there.