Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Saturday

Gas Prices High In Washington; New Orleans Mayoral Election; Latest Gas Gouge; Robo Cup Competition; Canadian Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan; New Orleans Votes For Mayor; High Gas Prices Fuel Frustration In Southern California; Georgia Tech Robot Competition; Skyrocketing Gas Prices Become Political; Alternative Fuel Technologies; Too Many Iguanas For One Florida Town; Wynton Marsalis Interview

Aired April 22, 2006 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: After months of deadlock, Iraqi lawmakers are finally making some progress in forming a unity government. A short time ago they elected Jalal Talabani as the country's president. Talabani has been serving as interim president. Other top positions are being filled as well.
The death toll for Canadian troops in Afghanistan climbs again. A roadside bomb killed four Canadian soldiers earlier today. The incident happened near Kandahar. The number of Canadian deaths in Afghanistan now stands at 15.

In Nepal, pro-democracy protestors press ahead with their effort to drive the country's king from power. Police in Katmandu used tear gas and barriers to break up a massive demonstration earlier today. Armed troops are now on guard at the king's palace. The protests are in their third week.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Fredericka Whitfield. Welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY. Ahead this hour: Bringing the music back to the Big Easy. I talk with jazz legend Wynton Marsalis and how he's giving back to his hometown of New Orleans.

Also, they're fast and hard to catch, a popular house pet now on the loose. An iguana invasion is driving everyone in this community crazy.

But first to our top story, gas prices up again. And yes, it's costing you more today than yesterday with traders paying more than $75 a barrel. We're shelling out an average of $2.88 for a gallon of regular unleaded. That's up nearly three cents overnight according to the AAA.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a whole bunch of people I can hold accountable for it, but I just have to do what I have to do. I need gas so I have to buy it, I guess, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Right. CNN's Kyung Lah is watching the gas gauge rise in Washington where they're paying some of the highest prices in the country -- Kyung.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Fredricka, you can't drive around anywhere in the district here in Washington D.C. without seeing prices well over $3, some of the highest prices I've seen about 3.40 or so. At this gas station it's 3.09. And depending on who you talk to, it's affecting people at different levels. We've actually just met John Gonder, you are a cab driver here in this area, and you have to fill up your tank everyday.

JOHN GONDER, CAB DRIVER: Yes, ma'am.

LAH: How much do you have to pay everyday to fill up your tank?

GONDER: About $40 a day.

LAH: What does that do for your bottom line?

GONDER: Well, I have to spend more hours. I normally work eight hours everyday, now I are to work eight to 10 hours.

LAH: So you have to work an additional two hours everyday to make up for that?

GONDER: Yes, ma'am.

LAH: How high could it go? You say last summer you were paying more than this?

GONDER: Yes, last summer, we were paying $3.69 per gallon, and was paying like $45 to $50 a day. This year we are spending almost $40 everyday and I work like Monday through Saturday, like eight to 10 hours everyday.

LAH: So are you thinking it's going to go up higher?

GONDER: Well, that's what they are presuming that it is going to go up to like $4 a gallon this week or next week.

LAH: Which means more time behind the wheel for you?

GONDER: Yes, ma'am.

LAH: All right. John Gonder, he is a cab driver in the D.C. area, thank you very much, sir, for talking to us.

Some people are say that they are just abandoning their cars and they're going to try to take public transportation here, saying they have little choice, but it is affecting a lot of people no matter who you are, just in varying degrees -- Fredericka.

WHITFIELD: Wow. Well, that is very interesting. Well, we know for the cab driver, you know, this is his bread and butter, for a lot of other folks pulling up, thought, behind you, average, you know, folks, are they telling you anything about how maybe they're modifying their driving or, you know, their overall need for gas? LAH: We've actually met some people who, you know, D.C. is a destination area for a lot of tourists. There was a woman who was here with her daughter, examining, looking at area colleges and what they did was they took the train in.

There's a lot of public transportation, so people are using that as a way to sort of even things out. But they say, even by taking public transportation, it's still costing them the same amount of money in their budget, as far as gas, as it did several, several months ago because it's still very, very expensive.

WHITFIELD: All right, Kyung Lah, thanks so much from Washington.

Well, President Bush says he knows working people and small business are being hurt by rising gas prices, but he's unlikely to focus on the immediate problem while visiting a California fuel cell partnership today. Instead, he's expected to tout long-term development of alternative fuel sources.

That might not be good enough, an ABC/"Washington Post" poll shows just 23 percent of Americans approve of the way the president is handling the current rise in gas prices. Nearly three-quarters or 74 percent disapprove and this poll was taken earlier this month before the recent run-up.

And you can bet democrats are taking notice. We'll take a look at how gas price of are fueling the political fires later on this hour. First a fact check. What's causing the spike in gas prices increase anyway? CNN's John Lisk lays it out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN LISK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Crude oil prices directly affect the cost of gasoline. The reason is simple. Crude is the primary raw material from which gasoline is produced. But other factors can affect the gas as well. Here in the U.S., refineries have not expanded at the rate of surging demand. According to the American petroleum institute, U.S. refineries were running last year at over 90 percent capacity. That left them unable to bump up production to respond to supply shortfalls.

President Bush has pushed for expanding refinery capacity. The current gas price spikes and supply disruptions stem from environmental concerns. A number of states banned a gasoline additive shown to pollute ground water. To make the transition, terminals are having to drain holding tanks and prepare them for the new gas mixture.

Other factors involved in the cost we pay at the pump include distribution costs, marketing costs and taxes, and yes oil company profits. Last year, Exxon-Mobile posted the largest annual profit of any company in U.S. history, $36.13 billion.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And one more note, OPEC Energy ministers are talking about the rapid rise in oil prices at a special meeting in Qatar. OPEC nations produce nearly a third of the world's oil supply. The energy minister from the United Arab Emirates says there's no shortage of raw crude.

In New Orleans, a watershed election nearly eight months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city, voters are choosing the person who will lead the Crescent City's comeback. Today's election pits embattled incumbent, Ray Nagin, against 20 challengers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This election here kind of determines which way the city goes and who goes into office ands pretty much the way I feel that anyone that gets into office today is pretty much on the hot seat no matter what they're running for. And pretty much right about now, I feel that people are going to do the best they can and the people we put our confidence in when we vote. So today we voted and give someone a chance and whoever in office just let them do they job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Well CNN's Sean Callebs is with us now from New Orleans. And Sean, what have you seen so far? Based on the circumstances, how many folks are turning out?

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: You know here, where we are, this one of the so-called super-precincts where people in the 7th Ward have come, they basically rolled 30 or so precincts that were closed because of all the flooding into this one. I has been packed here.

The polls have been open more than five hours, we're talking to people as they go in and really, in a large degree, this is a referendum on the way Ray Nagin, the current mayor, has handled the city in the wake of the devastation from the storms last August.

And we talked to a lot of people and they say so much is at stake. How the city is going it rebuild, where people are going to be allowed to rebuild, how to bring all the people back home who want to return to this area. We've talked to a lot of people and they say they have really educated themselves on the issues and the candidates.

WHITFIELD: And so overall when you look at a lot of the folks that are there at the polling station where you are, Sean, apparently it's a conglomeration of a lot of polling stations because of the circumstances. What, you know, is the makeup of those constituents who are coming to vote?

CALLEBS: Well, the overwhelming -- the number of people we have seen go in here today are African-American. What we're told is the precincts that are closed, that were rolled into this area, probably in the range of 65 to 70 percent black, the remaining percent white. Which is pretty much in line with the way New Orleans was before the hurricane blew in.

But of course, really the way the -- the makeup of the city, the racial makeup, social class, those have been two of the cornerstones of this election. Because so many people who are forced to leave this area were lower income, they were people of color, many want to come back, they say there simply aren't the jobs there isn't anywhere for people to live. So those are two of the things that all the candidates are talking about.

As you mentioned, 21, at least candidates for mayor. There are actually 23 on the ballot, but the three names everybody is hearing most, of course, Ray Nagin, the democratic Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu, whose sister a U.S. senator and who's father was the last white mayor in this city; and also businessman Ron Forman, he's well known in this area.

He had a lot of financial backing from the business community, the local newspaper, the "Times-Picayune" has endorsed him, he has a lot of support. But Fredricka, if one candidate does not get more than 50 percent of the vote, they're going to do this all over again on May 20. There will be a run-off or that date and virtually everyone expects there will be a run-off, the big question, which two candidates?

WHITFIELD: Wow. Yes, well with 23 as a whole on the ballot, one can almost see why. Now, what about the absentee vote? How much of an impact might that make on this whole day.

CALLEBS: Well, that's going to be interesting because we know there are at least 20,000 votes ahead of time that came in. We don't know who they voted for, but we can tell you, again, the racial makeup was 65 percent non-white, 35 percent white, right in line with the previous racial makeup of this city.

However, the Reverend Jesse Jackson and others civil rights leaders have legally challenged this election saying that basically a number of voters are disenfranchised that it's keeping so many people who left this area out of the democratic process.

So far he's gotten nowhere with those legal challenge, but we do know the Reverend Jackson is in town. He's going to be holding a news conference in a while. He still is not satisfied with the way this election has been held and he's convinced it's keeping a lot of people -- a lot of people of color from participating; however, finding it very difficult to get people on the ground here to say that is indeed the case.

WHITFIELD: All right, Sean Callebs from New Orleans, thank you so much.

A look "Across America," now. Five Kansas teens accused of plotting a shooting rampage at their high school are spending the weekend in jail, a bond hearing will be held on Monday. Police sate five boys planned to shoot other students and teachers at Riverton High School last week.

It now up to Delta's pilots to approve a new contract. Union leaders have ratified the agreement with the nation's No. 3 carrier, it including an initial 14 percent pay cut. Delta's pilots had threatened to strike over wage and benefit cuts proposed by Delta.

A court appearance in Appleton, Wisconsin for a man accused of trying to sell his 18 month old daughter. Authorities say Danny Vu wanted $7,000 so he could make home improvements.

A man who went to an Oregon hospital complaining about a headache turned out to have a dozen nails in his head. Doctors say he later admitted using a nail gun on himself during a suicide attempt. He's the first person ever known to have survived such an extensive injury.

Well, you've heard of the Ironman Completion, well, there's a competition going on this weekend that involves real ironmen. We'll have the details on that.

And it's something that Willie Nelson and George Bush agree on and it may be a way for us to reduce our need for oil.

And would you like to see one of these in your neighborhood? Maybe if you're some parts of south Florida you already have. How about 10,000 of them all at once? Iguanas galore. That story coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, this just in out off Iraq. We're being told that four U.S. soldiers have died south of Baghdad. What's being blamed, we're told, are improvised explosive devices. When we get more information we'll pass that on to you.

Meantime now, keeping an eye on the gas gouge. The numbers go up overnight. And while the average price is $2.88, plenty of folks are paying more than $3 already, take west Los Angeles. Jennifer Davis with affiliate station K-CAL looks at how rising prices are fueling frustration there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER DAVIS, K-CAL REPORTER (voice-over): The numbers keep going in the wrong direction. We have record breaking gas prices in Southern California; the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline has hit the $3 mark.

JENNIFER CARVER, COMMUTER: I think I'm going to go bankrupt having to fill my gas tank to get to work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. That's too high. I don't know what is wrong with this gas? I don't know what the people are going to do? You know, at least I got a job or something, but I don't know, some other people, I don't know what they're going it do. Have to take a buses or whatever.

DAVIS: Three bucks a gallon for regular unleaded seems to be on the low end. There's a range topping off at nearly $3.32 a gallon at this west Los Angeles gas station.

GARY GANNON, COMMUTER: When you figure in for inflation and everything, it's overdue. It's way overdue. I mean the rest of the world pays a lot more money than we do. I think we ought to pay more.

DAVIS: We are up 34 cents a gallon from a month ago, 41 cents from a year ago. The sharp increase is attributed to the price of crude oil; it hit a record high of $73 a barrel. When crude oil jumps, so does the wholesale price. The high price of gassing up is forcing motorists to look for ways to save.

CARVER: I don't fill up, honestly, because it's so expensive. I can't really afford to do it every time I come in. So, 30 bucks is my limit and I'm over it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Higher? Wow. We'll see. I'll buy a motorcycle.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And that frustration is not limited to California. We're getting e-mails from all over the country. Sherry Jeffson from North Carolina wants the government to take action. She writes, quote, "I'm curious to find out how the United States government expects the middle class of America to continue supporting the whole country when they can't pay for the gas that is needed for them to get to their jobs. If the government is really concerned for its people, someone should do something about this robbery of the United States citizens," end quote.

And Dave Denton out of Texas or rather Dave in Denton, Texas writes, quote, "Three dollars plus per gallon is not only hard on the pocket book, but it is going to wreck the economy. High gas prices will add more to every product you can think of because it will cost more to get it where it's needed. I'm thinking about selling off my full-size pickup," end quote.

Want to get it off your chest? Go to CNN.com/gas and put it in an email and find out how others are dealing with rising gas prices.

Well, it's not necessarily man versus machine, it's machine versus machine. Coming up, an international competition for robots, and we've got the star right here.

And later, you can follow the advice of Willie Nelson when you're on the road again and it could lower your gasoline bills. We'll tell you how. CNN LIVE SATURDAY will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Strong thunderstorms are rolling across parts of U.S. CNN meteorologist Reynolds Wolf is keeping track of all of this -- Reynolds.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: I do. You should probably join us because you'll really get into all this stuff. And it's all in part because there's a huge international completion taking place at Georgia Tech, today. And you won't see any humans out there, at least not a whole lot. The teams mostly are made up of robots. And of course there are some people behind the machines. Tucker Balch and Adam Jacoff are two of them and they're here to tell us all about it. And you brought a couple of your closest friends.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.

All right, Tucker, we'll begin with you, this completion really does bring out the best in those who are, you know, attuned to making robots and making them work. The competition breaks down into two categories. Some of these items will be used in search and rescue and the other in what's called robot soccer.

TUCKER BALCH, GEORGIA TECH: That's right.

WHITFIELD: What is robot soccer?

BALCH: So, robot soccer is four to five robots playing each other on a field using regular soccer rules. They coordinate with each other, using their own brains, as it were...

WHITFIELD: Is it all in fun or will there be some real practical use later?

BALCH: Well, so what we're doing is we're driving lots of the technologies with this competition that we hope to see in robots that'll be part of our everyday lives later on. And the completion is exciting because everybody knows what's happening. You know, you can look at a soccer game and know that progress is being made and it's easy to judge the systems because you know who won the game, for instance.

WHITFIELD: OK, and Adam, already in some practical use, the search and rescue type robots they're already being used in certain missions out there, but the focus this time is to come up with something better than the last thing. So, what do you look for in the best kind of search and rescue robots?

ADAM JACOFF, MECHANICAL ENGINEER: Well, these robots are not competing against each other, they're competing against the arenas that we set up, and this sets up reproducible test methods, essentially. And these robots are very systems oriented, they require mechanical engineering, For example, shifting its shape to better go upstairs or to go across rubble or to go under or between. But you know, it wouldn't be a robot without some intelligence onboard...

WHITFIELD: And you're controlling them via, at least, this computer or are there remotes?

BALCH: So what we -- There are different flavors. This one is remote controlled. I'll drive around here just for a second. They're very mobile. This one has four wheel drive,. and big fat knobby tires so it can drive over things.

JACOFF: Two cameras, two microphones so it's listening with differential hearing... WHITFIELD: And obviously, much more practical to use apparatus like this because there are conditions where just, you know, it's too treacherous for humans or just too dangerous or other reasons.

JACOFF: Some of it's about narrow access at a disaster site, there's places humans just simply can't fit and they need advanced tools like these to investigate those voids. And then there might be hazmat incidents where they just really shouldn't be going down range without knowing what they're going to encounter when they get there. So they want to put sensors on these.

WHITFIELD: So, what do other entries look like at Georgia Tech, you know as completion is getting underway, what looks interesting?

BALCH: There are a number of very interesting ones. There's one that has six wheels, one in the front and one in the back. There are some that are almost like tanks. There's all sorts of different approaches. I think some of the most successful are ones like this that can take on different shapes because...

WHITFIELD: Can you show us that real quick?

BALCH: Yes.

JACOFF: Well, it's just we're not driving it here. We're just actuating it to show the difference. But the bottom line is that these competitions are great ways to experiment with a variety of different ideas. So, none of these are hardened, they're all research endeavors but they're using the most sophisticated sensors, processing algorithms, computer science, artificial intelligence and mechanical design all at once.

WHITFIELD: All taking place at the Robo Cup. Adam Jacoff and Tuck Balch, thanks so much gentlemen for showing your wares, we appreciate it.

BALCH: You're welcome.

WHITFIELD: All right, well, frustrated by high gas prices? Everyone is these days. Maybe it's time you rethink what your putting in your gas tank. We'll explore some options straight ahead.

And the voters are spread out all over the country and there are nearly two dozen candidates. Coming up, today's New Orleans mayoral election.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Twenty-three candidates in all vying for votes as New Orleans picks its next mayor. It's the first municipal election since Hurricane Katrina drove tens of thousands out of city. We'll have live reports throughout the day.

Condoleezza Rice calls it good news. A break in Iraq's political stalemate. Jalal Talabani stays on as president, but parliament unseats controversial interim Ibrahim Al-Jaafari. Jawad Al-Maliki takes his place and has a month to form a cabinet.

Four Canadian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan. The Canadian military says its troops died this morning when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb near the city of Kandahar. The number of Canadian deaths in Operation Enduring Freedom now stands at 15.

In Nepal, riot police attack tens of thousands of protestors marching toward the palace. Police fired rubber bullets, live ammunition and tear gas on the demonstrators, injuring many of them. Opposition leaders are demanding that the king step down.

And this just into CNN. The U.S. military reports four soldiers killed in a roadside bombing in Iraq, earlier today. It happened south of Baghdad while the soldiers were on patrol.

The skyrocketing gas prices across America are getting a lot of attention in the political arena. For President Bush it's a worrisome issue and Democrats are already on the attack.

Here's CNN's senior political analyst, Bill Schneider.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): Gas stations are becoming the hot new political prop.

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: The price of gasoline is going up, up, up.

SCHNEIDER: Three bucks a gallon, and the peak driving season hasn't even started. President Bush brought the issue up without even being asked about it. He explained that there are three reasons for the price hike.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One, the increase in the price of crude oil. Secondly, there's increasing demand. Thirdly, we're switching fuel mixes.

SCHNEIDER: Sounds like the president is saying, hey, it's nobody's fault. Many analysts are inclined to agree.

DAVID SANDALOW, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: The biggest factor in the price increase right now is supply and demand. There is huge increasing demand in China and in the United States.

SCHNEIDER: Poppycock, say Democrats.

SCHUMER: A 30 cent increase is hard to explain strictly by the laws of supply and demand.

SCHNEIDER: They say, somebody is up to no good.

SCHUMER: I think that price-gouging laws could and should be strengthened, because I think there's more and more of it.

SCHNEIDER: President Bush was worried enough about the issue to add a fourth factor that might be worth looking into.

BUSH: And I'm also mindful that the government has the responsibility to make sure that we watch very carefully and investigate possible price-gouging.

SCHNEIDER: The president should be worried. Among voters who say the rise in gasoline prices is not causing them financial hardship, 43 percent intend to vote Democratic for Congress. Those who say gas prices are causing some hardship are voting 53 percent Democratic. And those who say gas prices are causing serious hardship are voting 64 percent Democratic. That includes 44 percent of Americans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And that was CNN's senior political analyst Bill Schneider reporting from Washington, part of the best political team on television. And you can find out much more about rising gas prices and political impact from Bill Schneider on THE SITUATION ROOM with Wolf Blitzer. It's only on CNN, weeknights at 7:00 Eastern.

With rising gas prices in the spotlight across the country, President Bush is in California to push his energy plan. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger greeted Mr. Bush after he flew into San Jose yesterday.

A couple of hours from now, the president will talk about hydrogen fuel technology in a speech in the California capital as President Bush visits California, protestors have gathered at each of his stops to blast his policies on energy and other issues.

With gas prices soaring and future supplies uncertain, maybe we shouldn't be looking for sources of energy under the ground but instead on top of it.

Technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg explores the possibility.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Maybe you scratched your head when Willie Nelson talked about biodiesel.

WILLIE NELSON, MUSICIAN: My wife told me -- this is a couple of years ago -- said, you know, I'm going to buy this car that runs on vegetable oil. I said, OK. So I bought a Mercedes and it's never had anything in it except vegetable oil.

SIEBERG: Perhaps did you a double take when President Bush said grass could power your car.

BUSH: We'll also fund additional research in cutting edge methods of producing ethanol, not just for corn, but from wood chips, and stalks or switch grass.

SIEBERG: But when two very different people are talking about a very different way to run your vehicle, there must just be something to it.

NATHANIEL GREENE, NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: There's a lot of interesting, new bedfellows coming together to fight for this and we want to see more of that.

SIEBERG: The idea of using plants powering your car isn't new. Using ethanol as a viable fuel source has been discussed since Henry Ford's days but it's never reached its potential.

Recent efforts to use corn for ethanol production have met with some resistance by critics since fossil fuels are needed to process the corn, which sort of defeats the purpose and because it's using an otherwise valuable crop. The key, many experts say, is making something called cellulosic ethanol.

BRIAN FOODY, CEO, IOGEN INC.: Almost any kind of source of natural fiber could be used, so we're standing in front of straw. America has great resources of corn stalks and corn stovers that are now just plowed under. But beyond that, we could go to rice holds in California, we could go to wood wastes all over the United States, or even municipal wastes.

SIEBERG: Iogen is a Canadian biotech firm, and the first to tap into making gas from grass on a bigger scale, as much as one million gallons a year. That's just a drop in the tank for what's required by all the vehicles in North America.

FOODY: People have to take a real risk to get the first facilities up. They have to move that forward. There's new things to be worked out. And these won't come without bugs and problems.

SIEBERG: Iogen is considering construction of a giant facility in Idaho, in 2007. Company reps routinely travel to Washington for more money and support. To date, they say the enthusiasm there is overflowing but the funding remains a trickle. It's getting over that bump that will make ethanol cost effective to produce. The manufacturing process involves taking plant material like wheat straw and separating the necessary ingredients.

(on camera): So I can't help but notice the smell up here.

FOODY: Not bad, is it? That's the fermentation and it's like the brewing process. In fact, we call this first batch that comes off beer, which is about five to seven percent alcohol.

SIEBERG (voice-over): Part of the reason environmentalists like it so much is that even the discarded material, called lignin, can be recycled back into the process to power the machinery. There's virtually no waste.

FOODY: When you produce cellulose ethanol, you actually don't use any fossil fuels in the processing. And that means overall there's no net greenhouse gas emissions.

SIEBERG: One success story on the road to ethanol conversion is the country of Brazil. Once dependant on fossil fuel, brazil is now on track to being energy independent, growing sugar cane for energy production.

GREENE: In the last three years their market has gone from virtually entirely gasoline vehicles going off the new car lot, until today it's about 75 percent vehicles that can use both gasoline and ethanol. Giving consumers choice just really has changed the market down there dramatically.

SIEBERG (on camera): Your car may already be equipped to run on an ethanol-based fuel. Today there are at least five million so- called alternative fuel vehicles on the road. That means they can run on regular gas or some combination of gas with up to 85 percent ethanol. But because your car probably doesn't look like this you simply may not be aware of it.

GREENE: The only reason car manufacturers have made flexible vehicles today, here in the U.S., is because they got credit towards their energy efficiency standards, requirements they had to meet. And so they were just producing them, but they didn't put any labels on them.

SIEBERG (voice-over): And that's likely led to some confusion over how ethanol works. Unlike a hybrid or hydrogen-powered car, there's minimal conversion needed with the engine. Any car can currently run on 10 percent ethanol and gas mixed together. So it will take a partnership between firms like Iogen, car manufacturers, and oil companies. For the consumer, the practical side is still a few miles away.

GREENE: The economic value cuts across the whole country and the environmental value clearly cuts across the whole country. National security value is cut across the whole country, so there's really no reason for this to be a Republican or Democratic issue or an urban or an agriculture issue.

SIEBERG: With oil hovering at $70 a barrel, average prices at the pump approaching $3 a gallon, the answer may lie in the ground, just not that far in the ground.

Daniel Sieberg, CNN, Ottawa, Ontario.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well, it is Election Day in New Orleans. If that was your hometown, how would you vote? Coming up, I'll be joined by a couple of city residents to hear what's on their minds post-Katrina.

And later, one town in Florida thinks there are way too many of these -- iguanas. Ouch. We get up close and personal with these reptiles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Political fallout today over news the CIA has fired Mary McCarthy, a top intelligence analyst, for leaking information to the media about secret CIA prisons. This is file video of McCarthy right here. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, a Republican, praised the move, but Democratic Senator Robert Menendez wanted to know why the White House hasn't been just as aggressive in punishing whoever leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Who is running for mayor of New Orleans in today's election? Well, maybe it would be easier to list who is not running. There are nearly two dozen candidates, including the incumbent, Ray Nagin.

And we have two New Orleans residents with us right now to talk about the election: Pam Dashiell who is from the hard-hit Ninth Ward area, and Lauren Greenberg whose family has also been devastated by Katrina. Good to see both of you.

LAUREN GREENBERG, KATRINA VICTIM: Hi, thank you.

PAM DASHIELL, 9th WARD RESIDENT: Nice to talk with you.

WHITFIELD: Well, Pam, let me begin with you. Did you vote today and if so, what were you thinking and feeling as you were casting your ballot?

DASHIELL: I did vote this morning. And I felt as if I were setting the pace for a new beginning for all of us here in New Orleans. It's time to really focus and get to work and that's what I felt like I was trying to get started by doing that.

WHITFIELD: Has this been a difficult decision for to you try to pare down what was once 23, now 23 candidates in all, trying to make a decision of who you thought would be best to help lead this city rebuild?

DASHIELL: It was very, very difficult. They're all decent people. Some of them I've met and some of them I know personally. And it was so hard. So many factors involved.

WHITFIELD: Well, Lauren, how about you? Did you vote today?

GREENBERG: I did. I voted this morning before I headed out to do this interview.

WHITFIELD: And what did it feel like to vote? Did you feel like you had a lot of pent-up emotions since Katrina and you were ready to kind of unleash them in the polling stations?

GREENBERG: I think so. I mean, today is an important day for the whole city of New Orleans and I was going into the polling station and I was nervous. And it's a big decision for everyone. We're electing the group of leaders that will charge us and lead us in the task of rebuilding New Orleans.

WHITFIELD: And both of you suffered great losses post-Katrina, Lauren, your family including your grandmother, lost their homes and the contents. And Pam, you lost just about everything as well and have had to relocate out of state.

So coming back, Pam, how important was it for you to participate in this election when there's so many evacuees spread out all across the country who have for many different reasons been unable to participate in this election?

DASHIELL: It was vitally important to participate, just because of those reasons you stated. People are eve everywhere and even though there were opportunities given to vote absentee and they set up those satellite stations, it seems like much, much more should have been done to reach out to people.

Perhaps it was to the best of their ability, but I think that much more should have been done. And I spoke with a friend of mine this morning who came to Alexandria to vote, not realizing that the satellite station initiative did not extend until today. So they're going to have to come from Alexandria all the way to New Orleans, which they'll do, but it just should have been much clearer and more expanded.

WHITFIELD: OK. And quickly, Lauren, before I let you go, you know, have you observed or have you been witness to certain communities getting the resources and the help from the city or other entities and others being neglected?

GREENBERG: I'm sorry, I couldn't hear the question. Could you repeat that?

WHITFIELD: Have you been a witness to or have you noticed that there are some neighborhoods that seem to get priority over the resources to help rebuild and clean-up?

GREENBERG: No, I think the city is in this as a whole. I don't think any neighborhoods have gotten more attention than others. I think that we need to start moving forward and enacting change and start the rebuilding process. And I think it's across the whole city. I don't think any one neighborhood is moving along quicker than others, because I think we're all in this together.

WHITFIELD: All right. Lauren Greenberg, Pam Dashiell, thank you, both of you ladies, for taking the time out on this Election Day.

GREENBERG: Thank you.

DASHIELL: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Is it an important day there in New Orleans.

(MUSIC)

WHITFIELD: It is indeed an important day. An important city particularly for this man, jazz legend Wynton Marsalis. He's lending a helping hand and a trumpet, of course, helping out the people devastated by Hurricane Katrina. He's hitting the Big Easy Sunday night to perform new music called "Congo Square." A preview is straight ahead.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, it seems as though everyone loves springtime but the one part of springtime people could do without would be the allergy season. And today's allergy forecast shows that if you happen to be in the Northern Plains, conditions are fine for you. But if you happen to be in the Central Plains, parts of the Southeast and parts of the Southwest, it is a Kleenex type of day for you.

All right, folks. I'm Reynolds Wolf, and that's a look at your allergy forecast.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Iguanas -- some find them adorable, others say they're ugly and they're creepy. Well, thousands of then are crawling all over one Florida community.

John Zarrella filed this report for "ANDERSON COOPER 360."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Relaxing on a rock. Perched on a chain-link fence. Slithering under a house. Sometimes road kill. Spiny-tail iguanas, miniature near carbon copies of the infamous "Jurassic Park" raptors, seem to be everywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's another one over there.

ZARRELLA: And over there. And over there. They've been in Boca Grande, a wealthy island community just off of Florida's west coast, at least 20 years. And with no natural enemies, their numbers have exploded, to an estimated 10,000 now, compared to just 600 people. And they are showing no signs of slowing down.

JERRY JACKSON, BIOLOGIST: I think their populations are just getting started, that they can continue to grow.

ZARRELLA: hey are driving everyone here crazy, plus, people fear they are a health threat. Iguanas can carry salmonella and tests are being to done to see if they carry the West Nile virus.

JACKSON: They could be a reservoir for it. They could be a reservoir for other diseases. They could be a source for other diseases getting into wildlife populations and ultimately people.

ZARRELLA: And they are destroying native species, eating bird eggs and endangered gopher tortoise eggs. They also love nesting in the sand, ruining the island's dunes, the first line of defense against hurricanes.

(on camera): Now all these little trails that you see up and down along the dunes, a lot of them are just these beat-down paths made by the iguanas?

JACKSON: Those dunes are riddled, they are hollow with spiny- tail iguana burrows.

ZARRELLA: So they are basically hollowed out.

JACKSON: They are.

ZARRELLA: And if you had a hurricane come in ...

JACKSON: They'll wash away.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): People want to want to get rid of them, but can't agree how to pay for it.

BEVERLY FURTADO, RESIDENT: The county wants us to pay for it.

ZARRELLA (on camera): Is there a problem with that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, there's a big problem with it.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): Put Len Tatko says, some people say just do it.

LEN TATKO, RESIDENT: A lot of people must say I don't care if I'm going to pay extra taxes, get rid of the problem and I'll send you the check.

ZARRELLA: The other problem is no one has figured out to get rid of them.

SCOTT TREBETOWSKI, ANIMAL CONTROL: They need to be euthanized because there's no place to take them. You can't reintroduce them somewhere else, you're just going to spread the problem.

ZARRELLA: And it's tough just catching them, they are nasty and fast, and once you've got them ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh!

ZARRELLA: They are just as hard to hold on to.

John Zarrella, CNN, Boca Grande, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well, that story first aired on "ANDERSON COOPER 360." Join "A.C. 360" weeknights at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

You know the sound, you know the face, Wynton Marsalis. He is getting ready to play the Big Easy tomorrow night. We'll hear from the jazz legend coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: In addition to it being Election Day in New Orleans, there's also a big concert in the Big Easy this weekend. Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra will perform "Congo Square" for the first time. It's new music named for the historic venue where the concert will actually take place, and part of their ongoing effort to help those devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Wynton Marsalis was in Congo Square on Friday, and I talked to him about the importance of bringing the music back to New Orleans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WYNTON MARSALIS, ARTISTIC DIR., JAZZ AT LINCOLN CTR.: Well, for all of us New Orleanians we do what we can in our field to help our city. So I would speak on behalf of us in this particularly tragic time to say that we love our culture, we love our music, and we're going to be about what it's about.

But we also are very grateful to people all over the country for the outpouring of love and support that they showed. And the music is our souls and our hearts. We produced so many great musicians from Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Domino -- you could go on and on and on with the role call -- Mahalia Jackson -- and we act in that spirit today.

WHITFIELD: And you've got your trumpet there. You know, you don't go far from the music. You've even written a new song in part, or co-written a song, that is significant to New Orleans right now called "Congo Square." Why?

MARSALIS: Well, "Congo Square" is a whole piece. It's about two hours long. And we came together with a master drummer from Ghana, Yacub Addy, and we've put together a type of music that's never existed before that really brings the bowels of the African music together with the bowels of jazz.

And Congo Square is the place in New Orleans where the Africans were allowed to retain their music and their culture and it was also a marketplace. So we bring this music now to celebrate the feeling of community, which we need now and also of integration that we still continue in the world to come together.

WHITFIELD: Can you give us a little sample of what you've got there?

MARSALIS: Well, there's a lot of dancing and singing and chanting. I'm just going to play a little something, a couple of notes.

(MUSIC)

WHITFIELD: And more of the sounds of Wynton Marsalis and an interview as well on "CNN SUNDAY" at 4:00 Eastern. I'll talk to him about mixing music with politics.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com