[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 99 (Tuesday, June 29, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5505-S5506]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             GULF OILSPILL

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Madam President, I wish to give the Senate a 
report on the gulf oilspill.
  Mother Nature is now developing hurricane and it is very likely 
within a couple of days of reaching hurricane strength, which is 75 
miles per hour or greater, but Mother Nature is smiling on us in that 
it is going on a more westerly track. It will probably go into the 
coast at northern Mexico, possibly southern Texas, but it will keep it 
away from heading into the area to the east of Louisiana where the 
oilspill is. Of course, if it had gone on that trajectory, then one of 
the worst nightmares would be that it takes all that oil on the 
surface, and in the rage of a hurricane, the counterclockwise rotation 
of the winds would take that right on to shore over the barrier 
islands, into the bays and estuaries where oil, once contaminating all 
the marsh grasses, becomes so difficult to get out.
  The effects of that we don't know. It could be for years to come, 
just as we don't know the effects of the subsurface oil that is there, 
that the scientists have identified, that BP denies, that even some of 
our Federal officials in NOAA deny. We are waiting on their report. Of 
course, we won't know the effects of that for years. We have a lot of 
uncertainty here. But at least for the moment, the hurricane is not 
bearing down on the oilspill, although let me remind my colleagues that 
we have a very active hurricane season coming up.
  What it is going to do, this first hurricane, is make the seas choppy 
and the waves large, even that far away. As a result, the skimming 
operations are going to be thwarted.
  That brings me to the topic of the skimming operations.
  I am grateful, since the U.S. Navy had identified 27 additional small 
skimmers that are stationed in ports around the country, that those 
have now been tasked to come to our inland waterways that are calm 
waters such as ports so that when the oil comes through the passes, 
through the inlets and gets into those calm water bays, we will have 
those skimmers there positioned to try to get it skimmed up before it 
gets into the marsh grasses. But why did it take so long? Why, of the 
27, have only 9 been put on trailers and are on their way to the gulf? 
Why are the remaining 18 having to go through the legal ramifications, 
which I understand the law is the law, not to be completed until June 
30, which is tomorrow, but why wasn't this done weeks ago? Because 
people do not have the sense of urgency that we do down on the gulf 
coast. They are not seeing their lives destroyed and their livelihoods 
eliminated and their culture completely changed.
  Of course, the effects of this for years, with 60,000--now people are 
finally getting around to acknowledging that it is 60,000--barrels of 
oil a day gushing into the gulf. It is filling up the gulf. It is 
affecting us and our way of life.
  There are how many States on the gulf? Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, 
Alabama, and the big one, with the most coastline, Florida, my native 
land. How many is that? That is five. The remaining 45 States are not 
affected. They can see it nightly on the TV. They can rant and rave, 
and they can see that gusher that continues. It is there on TV for us 
to see, and we can be mad about that. But unless one lives there and 
understands the daily effect on people's lives, they can't get that 
sense of outrage we have. So is it any wonder I have such impatience 
when five of my counties on the gulf coast have submitted requisition 
forms for the moneys they have advanced and they still have not been 
paid? Is it any wonder I have a sense of outrage when I see people lose 
incomes because cancellations are coming in on a daily basis? Is it any 
wonder I have a sense of outrage when I see local governments not being 
able to plan on their budgets because they don't know what their local 
tax revenue is going to be because of a diminution of business? Is it 
any wonder those of us on the gulf have a sense of outrage as we see 
the fear, the trepidation, the anxiety about the future about what 
their livelihoods are?
  I am going down to the White House now to talk about the one thing we 
can make something good come out of this travesty, and that is the 
future of trying to wean ourselves from our dependence on oil by 
aggressively going after

[[Page S5506]]

alternative energy sources. I hope out of this tragedy that will be one 
of the outcomes and that it will be led vigorously. But that sense of 
outrage I don't see. I am going to try to express it in the next few 
moments.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Washington.

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