For an item that has been continued for more than three years, any observation on what might happen in the future is pure speculation.

Roe has asked for an additional hearing because he wanted to get a little more information.

They have been hopeful since 2002 that the extent of their mining would be found to be acceptable. They have made a number of revisions to that application along the way.

We just couldn't stop them. And we didn't stop them. That's my only observation.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

There is a continuum which starts with direct sensory observations and proceeds to enormously complex, indirect methods of observation.