the Coast Guard was ready for operations in the Arctic with Operation Arctic Shield.

So just to make sure I got this right, I know that Under Secretary Hayes is working on a broader Arctic policy for the White House and developing that through the Secretary's office and the Interior Department.

Thank you very much. And again, I'll have questions for several of you.

And do you feel the other countries are participating in a way that is going to produce an end product?

Very good. Thank you very much.

the timetable of how you do this permitting is critical, because you can literally be off a few months and change a year or a year-and-a-half of development

I think this is a simple question, and that is the interagency working group, I'm assuming that it is working well.

I think your acknowledgement will be yes, but without it you have these ups and downs in research.

So safety requirements.

It's not about necessarily one port or one super port. It's about kind of a sequence of resources available.

Thank you for testifying. I appreciate you doing this by VTC.

Do you think you have the capacity where you are and some tweaks need to be added to it?

I think what I heard and gathered from your testimony is Port Clarence is one piece of the equation, but not the answer only by itself.

The highest probability of incidents is clearly in the increased maritime traffic across the board.

Arctic development, oil and gas exploration, shipping, tourism is happening in our Arctic waters now.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm just testing. Can you hear me okay, sir?

Thank you very much for your testimony.

we do need to make it sustainable through a number of different operators

the Coast Guard in Alaska will continue building its strategy using a whole-of-government approach that will inform national dialogue and policy and development of the Arctic region.

oil and gas development is important, but in the sense of shipping, the amount of movement of ships in the Arctic and the Bering Sea is increasing at a dramatic pace

this is an area of success from the 2012 experience that should be carried forward and improved upon further in the future.

Thank you, Senator, for allowing this testimony.

The consequences of losing a treasure like the Arctic are simply unacceptable.

The elders had a lot of wisdom that we should have paid attention to.

If you answer wrong, Jack, I'll correct you.