Mr. President, over the past 5 months, I have repeatedly expressed concerns about the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to issue backdoor climate regulations under the Clean Air Act. I spoke at length about this issue on the…

We still continue to hear from so many that the current administrative recognition process is insufficient, and we recognize this.

I understand what you have said.

It speaks to a process that, again, as Chairman Dorgan has noted, we want to make sure that when you utilize the process that we have set up through the agency to provide for this recognition, that it not be a--I think Senator Tester used…

I think we do recognize that the process is too slow, it is too cumbersome to recognize that you would have three decades, perhaps more, working to seek recognition.

When it is not working within the agency, sometimes there must be a redress through the legislative process.

We recognize that it is easier said than done.

So if these two situations don't qualify as an overriding reason to bypass, what would?

I would suggest that, at least with these groups that we have before us today, the scrutiny has clearly been there, based on what I have seen.

I think it is very important, I think quite significant that we have other policy-makers from the state here to just listen, to hear what is going on in this region.

Are you saying that we could tap the brains there at Sandia and Los Alamos and say, help us figure out a way that we can have the energy resource without impacting the fishery resource?

Well, thank you. I appreciate your involvement in not only the energy issues, but from the perspective of the Interior and your focus on some of our challenges that we face here in the state.