Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing today. I have just come from a Homeland Security hearing, which as you know, is also investigating Katrina. Thank you also for organizing the Committee tour of the damages and challenges to the nation's and the Gulf Coast's energy infrastructure.

My immediate impression is that we have a national crisis on our hands in the aftermath of Katrina and Rita, and that the needs are complex. More than 30 percent of the nation's domestic oil comes from the Gulf. Ten percent of our refining capacity has been knocked out. Entergy's New Orleans subsidiary filed for bankruptcy on September 21st. Natural gas pipeline companies were severely challenged to keep their supplies going throughout the South and up to the Northeast, fueling the likelihood of even higher natural gas prices.

Over three days of visiting energy and chemical companies in the Gulf, I was impressed and moved by the heroic, untold stories of humanitarian actions by company employees. Companies deployed their own resources, boats, employees, and supplies, to save people from flooding homes. All this as they were fighting to save the energy infrastructure so vital to our nation.

The first phase in this national disaster was to assist the victims with their immediate needs. As we continue to assist the people displaced by the hurricanes, we must also move to the second phase of rebuilding the energy infrastructure which underlies the economy of the nation and the region.

Mr. Chairman, I look forward to the testimony of the witnesses and their suggestions as to how the federal government can help sustain and rebuild these industries.