Thank you. It is always a pleasure to speak to fellow state officials. I was one myself for 8 years.

State officials have a unique perspective. They are often right at the interface of national needs and local concerns. Dealing with both is part of the delight of the position; and part of the challenge.

We are now faced with a new challenge. It demands the same perspective, but it requires new action. We must act together to increase America's energy security.

The challenge is global, and it requires generational planning. America is in a marathon, not a sprint toward greater energy security.

The challenge has been building for some time. Four years ago, the National Energy Policy Development Group led by Vice President Cheney defined our nation's energy crisis as "A fundamental imbalance between supply and demand."

That fundamental imbalance continues to grow worse, more weighted to vulnerability, less weighted to security.

The stakes could not be higher. In his Pulitzer-winning history of the oil industry, author Daniel Yergin noted that "Oil has meant mastery throughout the twentieth century."

Oil may mean economic mastery for much of the 21st century too. Oil demand is increasing and oil competition is growing. According to the Energy Outlook, "Energy demand in the emerging economies of developing Asia, which include China and India, is projected to more than double over next 25 years."

Growing economies have more industrial activities that require more energy. They have emerging middle classes who want cars and other energy-consuming goods.

Take China. China desires - and requires - more energy. To maintain a steady rate of economic growth, experts estimate that China will need to increase its energy consumption by about 150 percent.

Based on its share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), China is expected to soon become 3rd largest economy in the world, according to an estimate by Goldman Sachs. China's GDP could surpass that of the United States in 2041.

China is reaching out to acquire the energy it needs. Last fall for example, China signed an oil and gas agreement with Iran worth at least $70 billion.

Unless we deepen our domestic energy supplies, increasing global competition for oil will make America even more vulnerable to energy shocks.

U.S. oil imports have risen sharply over the last two decades. The United States already imports about 60 percent of the net petroleum it uses. That demand will rise to almost 70 percent by 2025, according to the Energy Information Administration's Annual Energy Outlook.

Oil-price shocks led to recessions in 1973, 1980 and 1990. $30 per barrel oil prices also had a part in the 2002 recession.

Crude oil futures closed above $53 a barrel last Friday. Those high energy prices are a headwind against economic growth, according to Treasury Secretary John Snow. Not long ago (March 6) he told ABC's George Stephanopoulos, "These high energy prices act like a tax on the economy. They are way, way too high."

Last year, oil prices increased by about $9 per barrel, the equivalent of about a $32 billion tax. Those increased oil prices may have held back real GDP growth by .3 or .4 of a percentage point, according to the recently released Economic Report of the President.

Consumers are hurt by those high prices. So are many different sectors of the economy. For instance, the U.S. chemical industry lost about 90,000 jobs between 1998 and 2003 in part due to high oil and gas prices. Those jobs moved overseas to places where energy is less expensive.

You have probably heard constituents complaining about high gas prices. You may know of small business owners who have been wounded by energy cost increases.

America must not remain on this hazardous course. We must lessen our vulnerability to energy shocks; we must increase our supplies of domestic energy.

We can rise to that challenge. We can increase the Nation's energy security. One of the primary ways that we can begin doing so is by opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to environmentally responsible energy production.

ANWR represents the single greatest prospect for this Nation's future onshore oil development. ANWR's 10-0-2 Area probably contains a mean of almost 10.4 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil, according to estimates by the US Geological Survey.

At peak production, ANWR's 10-0-2 area could deliver 1 million barrels per day. That represents almost one-fifth of current U.S. daily production.

We will not know until Congress empowers us to go there. I know that there is strong local support for opening ANWR to environmentally responsible energy production. I understand that many of the Alaska legislators here today see the need to do so.

I just returned from another visit to Alaska, where I toured production facilities on the North Slope and visited the village of Kaktovik. There, an Elder told me that God gave us wildlife and land, and God also gave us oil. It is ours to balance those gifts wisely.

Areas in Alaska have a human fingerprint, but Alaska remains a spectacular place.

I understand that last year, virtually all the members of your Executive Committee traveled to the North Slope. You have probably seen wild creatures and energy companies coexisting.

They are. Over the last 25 years, the Central Arctic caribou herd has increased in number while energy production has been ongoing. In 2003 the population of the herd reached its highest levels ever recorded. They are protected by strong regulations.

It is a tribute to our environmental consciousness that we have learned to harness technology to protect the creatures living in such amazing places.

Innovations in platform development and directional drilling mean that we need fewer and smaller pads to tap into oil and gas reserves. From a single platform, we can explore an underground area nearly the size of Washington D.C.

Exploration in the 10-0-2 area will be limited. Energy production will be tightly regulated. Legislation previously passed by the House of Representatives - which the President and I supported - contained the strongest environmental protections ever required for oil and gas leasing.

For instance, the legislation demands application of the best commercially available technology for exploration, development, and production operations be applied. It establishes a strict 2,000 acre limit - the maximum surface allowed to be occupied by production and support facilities on the Coastal Plain.

The legislation also mandates that energy production activities create no significant adverse effect on the environment, including the fish and wildlife, their habitat, and their subsistence resources.

Over 100 million acres in Alaska have already been set aside as parks, wilderness areas and other protected areas. Drilling will not be done in those areas, nor in others so dedicated. The President respects the offshore drilling moratorium. We in his administration will continue to honor it.

ANWR could supply the state of Florida with energy for a generation (30 years), according to mean USGS estimates. It could supply California for 16 years, and it could supply the District of Columbia for more than 1,700 years.

We in the administration have done what we can to increase domestic production. The President's comprehensive energy plan was our starting point. It called for increased conservation and increased development of all forms of domestic energy - renewables and non-renewables alike.

We are implementing the recommendations that we can administratively. We are investing in hybrid cars and hydrogen fuel cells.

On the Outer Continental Shelf, we have provided deepwater royalty relief for all lease sales since 2001. We have also offered royalty relief to promote the development of deep gas wells in shallow water.

Deepwater fields are also undergoing a great period of development - especially in the Gulf of Mexico. Last year, there were 14 new deepwater startups and 12 deepwater discoveries.

Last month, I traveled to Texas to dedicate the Thunder Horse platform. Thunder Horse is the largest floating oil platform in the world, standing atop the largest reservoir discovered in the Gulf to date.

Thunder Horse has the potential to produce approximately 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent over the life of the field. At its peak, the facility is designed to process 200,000 million cubic feet of natural gas, and 250,000 barrels of oil per day.

That oil can be refined into 125,000 barrels of gasoline, or about 5 million gallons.

Thunder Horse will join the 4,000 production platforms already operating in the Gulf of Mexico. Each day, they are producing nearly 1.7 million barrels of oil and 12 billion cubic feet of natural gas. Federal offshore lands account for 23 percent of all natural gas, and 30 percent of all oil, produced in the United States.

Responsible energy development is also continuing on our public lands. My department has been doing what it can to expedite that development in environmentally responsible fashion. You heard about our best management practices last year.

In fiscal year 2004, the Bureau of Land Management processed more than 7,300 applications for permits to drill (oil and gas). That is the most applications it has processed in the last two decades.

We are also opening rights of way. In fiscal year 2003, the Bureau of Land Management issued 1160 energy rights of way, including oil, gas, and electric transmission.

The Bureau did even better in fiscal year 2004. It authorized 1,900 rights of way.

Last fall, another essential right of way opened up. Congress passed enabling legislation which should lead to the construction of a natural gas pipeline. That pipeline will bring the gas on Alaska's North Slope to markets in the Lower 48.

When finished, that pipeline will be a lifeline of energy security and price stability.

There are 35 trillion cubic feet of known gas reserves on Alaska's North Slope. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates there are far more trillions to be discovered.

To tap into those vast resources, we have set up an interagency task force which will coordinate federal permitting activities.

We need your help to tap into the vast resources in ANWR.

Information relayed at the local level often has the largest national impact. The debate over increasing domestic supplies of energy will not be won through feature reports from network television or editorial support from national newspapers - although we will gladly accept it.

Rather, it will be won in towns and small communities - in neighborhood conversations and on local news pages. You represent those places. You have the sort of personal access to opinion leaders in counties and small communities that the President and I could only wish for.

So I urge you. Talk to your neighbors and constituents about energy. Engage your Congressional delegation with your concerns about energy security. Write the editors and reporters at your local newspaper about the growing global competition for energy - and about ANWR.

I know that many of you have been doing so already. I am grateful for all of your public statements and behind-the-scenes work. But now is the time to redouble our efforts. Now is the time to exert as never before.

We have a real opportunity this term of Congress. We must not miss it again. We may never have another such chance. There are exciting things on the horizon: methane hydrates, oil shale and new conservation technologies.

The future can be a bright one. But we need your help. We need your help to build a comprehensive energy program for America.

Together, we can do it. Together, we can build a future of energy security and American security. Together, we can build a future of independence and limitless horizons; a future of promise and a future of hope.

Thank you.