1 "Georges Bank, what does that mean to you," they're going to say to you, 



2 "It means fish." 



3 I think the other part of the equation, at least from 



4 Massachusetts' perspective, I think it's always been possible to work 



5 out a leasing program in the Georges Bank region. I think the 



6 difficulty has always been the amount of area that the federal 



7 government has wanted to lease. 



8 I think the other aspect of it all is even with the uncertainties 



9 around trying to predict what the quantity and quality of the petroleum 



10 resource may be underlying the area, that it's lost on most people that 



11 we the public should just buy into the, "Well, we never really will 



12 know, and the oil companies know better. So, where they tell us they 



13 want to go is where we, the federal government, should lease this public 



14 resource." 



15 So, I think it's the combination of all those things that makes 



16 the question of oil and gas drilling in the North Atlantic controversial 



17 and will keep it controversial. 



18 DR. RAY: I haven't said anything controversial yet today, so I 



19 think it's time to stir the pot a little bit. 



20 First of all, let me say that I think your comments are right on 



21 and that your "Civics 101" lesson was very good. Those are realities, 



22 and I think anybody that doesn't understand them is kidding themselves. 



23 Let me come back and make a few comments about reality. One of 



24 the things that I have an awful lot of problem with is the hypocrisy I 



25 see sometimes from the States because of political reasons, and from the 



26 environmental groups that are trying to save the environment. 



27 I was very pleased to see Dick make a comment this morning about 



28 commercial fishing. If you went into the commercial fishing-- 



29 DR. COOPER: Be very careful of what you say. 



30 DR. RAY: --and had to do a nitpicking detailed environmental 



31 impact statement for each of those different fisheries and really 



32 evaluated what's going on, and I'm talking about now the public's 



33 resources that we were just talking about that we're protecting, the 



34 tradeoffs that you're making for the fish that go on your table versus 



140 



