KAREN HUNT: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Commonwealth North. I'm Karen Hunt, retired Superior Court judge and president of the Board of Directors of Commonwealth North. In case you didn't notice the sign, this is a non-designated area for cell phones. So if you have one, will you be sure to either turn it off or bury it or do whatever you do that won't disturb anyone if it rings. And if you need to take a call and leave the room we understand.

As always on your table are question cards. Please write out your questions as the program proceeds, hold them up, and one of the staff will pick them up and bring them to the head table so that we can ask the speakers to respond. At this time I would like to introduce our head table. Immediately to my left we have Mr. Mike Menge who is commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources. Sitting next to him is Mr. Harry Noah who is former commissioner, Department of Natural Resources. And at the end of the table is Governor Walter J. Hickel, twice governor of the state of Alaska, former secretary of the Interior, founder of Commonwealth North and also the Army Reserve ambassador for Alaska. Welcome to each of you. I also would like to acknowledge that we have Brenda Menge here who is the wife of the commissioner. We're delighted to have you, thank you. And I also want to acknowledge that Mr. John Shively is here. And as you know, he is former commissioner of DNR under Governor Sheffield. So welcome, Mr. Shively.

Okay. Here's the way we're going to work it. Our speakers will make their presentations and then we will have a Q and A session that will go until approximately 1:00 o'clock. We'll then take a brief recess and then we will reconvene with the speakers and any and all of you who wish to remain to have a small group, one on one discussion where you will not only have the opportunity to have additional questions answered that you may have, but you will also have the opportunity to have follow up and discussion about those questions. Our guests have been very kind and have extended to us an additional hour to hour and 45 minutes of their time to do this. So this opportunity to get additional questions addressed that you have regarding the subject matter is more than welcome and we urge you to stay.

Now I would like to introduce with more detail each of the speakers. Commissioner Menge has been an advisor and leader in numerous positions dealing with energy, mining and environmental issues. Dating back to 1974, Mike began his work for the U.S. Geological Survey as an exploration geologist. In the 1980s he was chief of Natural Assessment Branch of USGS, there he lead the oil and gas resource evaluation on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and he made a report to congress of that evaluation. From 1995 until 2002, Mike was staff to the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and was the principal author of a federal enabling legislation for an Alaska natural gas pipeline. As a senior advisor to the governor in 2003 to 2005, Mike was a senior member of the state team negotiating the provisions of the contract for construction of the Alaska natural gas pipeline. Mr. Menge is currently the commissioner of Alaska Department of Natural Resources. Welcome.