Senator Shaheen, you were a well-informed host as we toured Portsmouth Naval Shipyard together last summer studying their energy plans, and I am pleased that you wisely selected a naval vessel as the site of this important Senate hearing.

I am honored to be here in my home state at a base I know so well from the days I had the honor to serve the considerable number of military installations and private sector industrial infrastructure throughout Virginia, first as Secretary…

Maybe look at fuel contracts beyond a 5-year window and again, revisiting with our friends at CBO, the scoring process that puts all those costs in that first year rather than timing them out when you actually draw down and use the fuel.

I like to put my testimony in the record and so shape my remarks, as we say in the Senate floor.

I'm hopeful someday Congress will pass a, one of those words, comprehensive bill on a whole range of energy directives because our country is waiting desperately for it.

I think that's a really significant answer since the question of readiness clearly one of the most strategically important issues you have to deal with.

But we have an obligation, the Congress, when we pass a law, when the private sector invests and relies upon it, leave it alone.

You're a man of courage and you take on the tough jobs in that Congress and do the very best you can to achieve working relationships.

Right now gas is somewhere, what, where we are, $3.85, maybe a little below $4 in some areas?

Now I want to emphasize also the questions of biofuels.

the warfighters have got to have in their hands the most modern, the most high-tech, the most advanced weapons obtainable.

the buck stops on your desk. You have got to exercise stronger oversight.