[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 51 (Monday, April 23, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S3793]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                              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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