Daines, Steve: which I'm going to share with everybody here as we start this hearing that shows some alarming figures with you all. Before I get into that, I need to officially state this hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will now come to order. On this iPad here, I've got a live tracker of European purchases of Russian energy since the start of the invasion in Ukraine. Now, we're not allowed to have big PowerPoint presentations here, but bear with me. This thing is just clicking down or clicking up, I should say, euros. And right now, it says 219 billion, 221 million, 431 thousand, 104 and Now, it's jumping to 581 euros. that have now been invested in Russia in purchasing Russian oil and Russian gas. It's called russianfossiltracker.com if you want to see it yourself and it goes back to the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. So the number right now as I mentioned about 220 billion euros. As of December the EU had provided around 200 billion euros of aid to Ukraine. European purchases of Russian energy are funding the largest land war in Europe since the Second World War. I just wanted to set the stage with that before we get started. I want to thank our two witnesses for being here today to discuss such an important topic and a great deal of thanks to Ranking Member Murphy for his participation and help in organizing this hearing. Our bipartisan cooperation on these issues will shine a light on some of the good work Europe has done to sharpen security as well as the policy changes the EU can enact to ensure the continent's energy security. Now on to our witnesses. Geoffrey Pyatt is a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global Energy Center and a senior managing director at McLarty Associates. Prior to his current positions he had a long and distinguished career at the US Foreign Service serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources, as US Ambassador to Ukraine and Greece, and other senior postings both abroad and in Foggy Bottom. He has extensive experience working on European energy security issues. We are grateful he could be with us here today to share his expertise. Thank you. Dan Byers is Vice President of Policy at the Global Energy Institute at the US Chamber of Commerce where he focuses on environmental and regulatory issues. He previously served as a staff director for the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee, as an official in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and on the White House Economic Council. Mr. Byers is deeply knowledgeable about energy regulation and energy markets. We're grateful he could be here today to share some of his knowledge with us. So on to the matter at hand. Energy security is national security. Both the United States and Europe have become increasingly aware of that fact over the last four years, creating an opportunity for us to collectively build a resilient energy production and transport network that would form the bedrock of our economies. The European Commission's recent regulatory reform is a step in the right direction, aligning bloc-wide regulations with more pro-energy, pro-business, pro-market policies. In passing that reform took creativity and courage. I'd like to commend the European People's Party and their voting partners for the good work they've done on that package. But there's still a lot more to do, clearly. All of Europe must recognize that it cannot function or recognize its economic and security goals without baseload power, and it must enact further regulatory reform to modernize the European energy ecosystem. The continent has an opportunity to permanently end its resilience, its reliance on Russian energy, providing true independence and autonomy for America's partners on the other side of the Atlantic. Without enacting further regulatory reforms, Europe may find itself staring down the barrel of resuming Russian energy dominance or extortion, putting itself back into the vulnerable position it found itself in 2022. If Europe learns nothing else from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, let it be that energy security and supply chains are vital to national sovereignty. Compromises can't be made in those matters. We must work together to ensure those networks' resilience, and survivability. I remember a trip I took to the Baltics a few years ago. I remember hearing the story about, once upon a time, the nuclear reactor that existed there that was dismantled, taken out of production as a request to join the EU, and they took me up to the Baltic Sea where I could see a beautiful new LNG import terminal. But once upon a time, Lithuania used to be a net energy exporter, and after actions taken, short-sighted to remove the baseload power of their nuclear power station, they became an energy importer. Then, of course, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that problem clearly was further exacerbated. I encourage our European partners to take a realistic view on building reliable energy infrastructure. One need look no further than Spain and Portugal to see the dangers of over-reliance on intermittent sources. The entire Iberian Peninsula found itself without power last year, underscoring the vulnerability of countries that failed to maintain a diverse set of energy sources. And to be clear, where I stand on here, I want to see a diverse energy portfolio. I just want to see more electrons and more baseload power and more diversity as it relates to energy. As the West builds the economy that will drive our countries forward, baseload power will become even more important. Whether it be for data centers, manufacturing, or defense production, reliable power is the backbone, certainly, of future prosperity. The United States and many of our partners and allies stand at the ready to work with Europe to increase energy supply, be it oil, gas, nuclear, hydro, or renewables. The reinvigoration of our economies will require a holistic, truly all-the-above energy approach. And I believe Europe must act now, enacting the regulatory reforms and infrastructure investments necessary to sign long-term energy import and development contracts and ensure the continent's future. Prosperity and security are dependent on such changes, and I look forward to continuing to work with our European partners to build a more secure future for both Europe and the rest of the world. Now I'd like to recognize the very distinguished member and ranking member for his comments, Senator Murphy.