and affairs. a senior fellow of the bipartisan center. he's written a new book called gridlock of thriller novel. which is an oxymoronic play on words. senator, let me begin with you. the bakken boom, which is the oil that ended up in this town that i never heard of in canada, blew it to smithereens. it is just transformed your state. it's completely transformed your state. do we have the regulatory infrastructure in place to deal with the explosion that we have seen in oil coming up the bakken reserve? >> well, first of all, it's not just the bakken, it's the natural gas, it's a national phenomenon, and it's good news in the sense that we're producing oil here at home. this is a description of why you need effective regulatory authority, you need people that