1 There are no guarantees and, unfortunately, I think some of the 



2 political folks are looking for some sort of guarantee in order to be 



3 able to take the heat. You see, the voters know the fisherman and they 



4 know the environmental groups, but they don't really know the oil and 



5 gas explorationists. 



6 The oil and gas explorationist has only been around for a few 



7 years, in fact, really for a few months when they were out drilling on 



8 Georges Bank. There hasn't been enough of a presence by the oil 



9 industry in this region to form a counterpoint to that emotional 



10 attachment I mentioned earlier to the fisherman and to the environmental 



11 groups. 



12 So, if somebody comes along and says that the oil companies are 



13 actually a threat to the fisherman, there's no one there to balance that 



14 with some sort of a more reasonable argument. 



15 These are political realities, whether we like it or not. Our 



16 government is not ruled by a series of high priests who can make 



17 pronouncements for the good of everybody, based on the best information 



18 that's available. Those decisions are made by elected officials who are 



19 very sensitive to public opinion. 



20 I personally am here to learn more about the canyons and to keep 



21 as open a mind as possible. As long as I am working on OCS activities 



22 for the State of Rhode Island, I'll see that there is an element of 



23 science considered. Science, I hope will play a very important role in 



24 the decision-making process. 



25 Not to belabor the point, but we have to keep in mind that science 



26 is not the only thing that we have to look at and we have to consider. 



27 Thank you. That's the end of the humanities lecture for the day. 



28 (Laughter) 



29 DR. TEAL: A slightly facetious point, if I may. The price of oil 



30 and gas is low at the moment and there is not a whole lot of interest in 



31 New England. I think it's inevitable that there's going to be some 



32 period of time before the companies want to spend very much time 



33 drilling on Georges Bank, whether they're close to the canyons or not. 



136 



