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“OIL DRILLING” mentioning the Department of Interior was published in the Senate section on pages S3793 on April 23, 2001.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
OIL DRILLING
Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I rise to discuss a matter of critical importance to the State of Florida; that is, the prospect that soon, under the new administration, we might have the sale-for-lease tracts for offshore oil drilling off the coast of the State of Florida.
There has been in place presently a moratorium in one form or another since 1989 regarding drilling off the coast of the State of Florida. And there is presently offered, through this new administration, through the Department of the Interior, a proposed lease sale called
``lease sale 181,'' which comes within 30 miles of Perdido Key, which is in northwest Florida. It is explained by the new administration that most of the tract for lease is 100 miles off the coast. But there is indeed a part that comes to within a few miles of the coast of Alabama and close to the State of Florida-Alabama line. This lease tract would come within some 20 to 30 miles of the pristine white beaches of the State of Florida.
I can tell you that 16 million Americans residing in the State of Florida do not want drilling off the coast of our State and have spoken vigorously against it, which is why we have had a moratorium off the State of Florida. Yet the administration continues to persist.
Now let me read for you a statement that was made by candidate George W. Bush in the past campaign. He made this statement at West Port Richey, north of Tampa, FL. He said at the time in the campaign, when asked about offshore oil drilling in Florida:
I'm going to work with your Governor about offshore drilling here in Florida. We are both against it. We are both against it.
Twice he said he was against it. But it is now his position to offer it. Just last week the Tampa Tribune, a very conservative editorial newspaper--in an editorial last Thursday, said:
Had George W. Bush openly supported the sale of these leases before the election, he would have lost Florida and the Presidency.
Now that is the truth. And promises are being broken. The fact is that they don't need to be because we could address our energy problem if we would be wise by increasing our R&D on alternative fuels, on increased conservation. You don't have to produce your way out of the energy crisis. You can be a lot wiser with using alternative methods.
In the discussion of the budget, we saw some dramatic testimony showing that the consumption of energy in the United States, in large part, is allocated to transportation. Why should we not use research and development to build a new automobile that in fact can get 60 to 80 miles per gallon? That would cause a tremendous conservation of energy in this country. That is just one alternative, but it is an alternative we ought to explore and keep the promises that were made in the election.
This whole matter of offshore oil drilling suddenly caught my attention back in the early 1980s, when, as a junior Congressman representing a congressional district off the east coast of Florida, suddenly I was confronted with the Reagan administration, through the person of the former Secretary of the Interior, James Watt, offering leases for oil drilling off the east coast of the United States, from as far north as Cape Hatteras, all the way as far south as off Fort Pierce, FL. As a junior Congressman, I went to work with the Appropriations Committee in the House to get them to insert language that would say in the Department of the Interior appropriations bill: No money may be used under this appropriations act for the purpose of offering oil and gas leases in tracts such-and-such--and then we described all of the tracts that were being offered.
We won in that year in the Appropriations Committee because of bringing to that committee dramatic testimony from Florida about what would be the environmental and economic damage to our State if waves of oil were lapping up onto the beaches of Florida--not only environmental damage, but economic damage as well, particularly considering Florida's tremendous tourism industry.
Well, I thought my fight was over. But sure enough, after a year's lapse, the Reagan administration came back under a new Secretary of the Interior and proposed those oil leases again. So we had to go to work even harder. This time it escalated all the way up to not just the appropriations subcommittee on the Department of the Interior, but to the full Appropriations Committee, where we finally won the vote by pointing to NASA and the Department of Defense to the fact that you can't be dropping solid rocket boosters from the space shuttle and the first stages from expendable booster rockets being launched from the Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station if you have oil rigs down below. So we won that vote after a hard fight.
I thought our fight was over on being able to protect Florida's shores from the threat of environmental and economic damage as a result of oil drilling. But my hope back there in the early 1980s was for naught because in the year 2001, despite a promise that was made last fall, in the year 2000, by candidate for President George W. Bush, one of the first acts of the new Bush administration is to offer for sale lease tract 181 off the coast of the State of Florida for oil and gas drilling.
Well, 16 million Floridians will not stand for this. Senator Bob Graham and I will not stand for this. Statewide elected officials expressed many times over, including this Senator who used to be an elected member of the State Cabinet of Florida, will not stand for it. The legislature of the State of Florida will not stand for it. Most of the congressional delegation from the State of Florida will not stand for it. Yet the administration persists.
It looks as if we are in for a donnybrook where we will clash our swords and see if the will, the desire of 16 million Floridians will prevail.
I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.
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