[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 79 (Thursday, May 21, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3241-S3242]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. NELSON (for himself and Mr. Markey):
  S. 1430. A bill to improve the ability of the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration, the Coast Guard, and costal States to 
sustain healthy ocean and coastal ecosystems by maintaining and 
sustaining their capabilities relating to oil spill preparedness, 
prevention, response, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, today the U.S. Coast Guard and the 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are responding to yet 
another oilspill in the water. In a moment, I will bring out a 
photograph which shows the fresh crude oil on the beach of Refugio 
State Park in California. This oilspill brings back the images from 5 
years ago of the oil-coated pelicans and tar-stained beaches, which 
were once sugar white, covered with gooey mats of oil from the 
Deepwater Horizon oilspill. Although the spill happened in 2010, a lot 
of that oil is still sloshing around out there in the gulf.
  Last week, the Department of the Interior told us that the oil 
leaking in the gulf since 2004 from Taylor Energy wells could continue 
for a century or more ``if left unchecked.''
  This is the oilspill that just happened in the last few days. It is 
fresh crude, and it is on the beach in California. Of course, when I 
see this kind of picture, it brings me back to that experience all of 
us on the gulf coast had 5 years ago, and we wouldn't wish that upon 
anybody. Remember, to begin with, they said, Oh, it is just a few 
hundred barrels of oil, even though it was ruptured 1 mile beneath the 
surface of the water.

[[Page S3242]]

Then we got the streaming video. We actually put that video on my Web 
site. The chairman of the environment committee, Senator Boxer, put it 
up on her committee Web site. Once scientists could see how much was 
flowing, they could calculate, and then they saw that it wasn't going 
to be a few hundred or even a thousand barrels of oil a day; it was 
approaching something like 50 times that.

  We know what, in fact, happened. Almost 5 million barrels of oil was 
spilled. The court in Louisiana--the Federal court that is hearing this 
case against BP--indeed has concluded that those who are going to be 
held responsible under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 will be 
responsible for somewhere around 4 million barrels. That is court-
decided.
  A lot of that oil is still out there. Yet, appallingly, today the 
economy and the environment of the State of Florida are again under 
attack. I have just been informed that Senators from Louisiana, 
Mississippi, and Texas are seeking to invite oil rigs within 50 miles 
of Florida's coastline.
  Now, of course, that goes against all logic. It is certainly not what 
the people of Florida want and it is not what the Department of the 
Interior has said is appropriate or necessary under the next 5-year 
leasing plan.
  Florida is a unique State. This is a photo of a dead dolphin covered 
with oil that is just another casualty of what we are seeing that is 
happening this week.
  The reason I am here today with these Senators who are threatening 
Florida is because in 2006, in a bipartisan way, the other Senator from 
Florida, Mr. Martinez, a Republican, and I, a Democrat, joined together 
to put in law that the Outer Continental Shelf off Florida is off-
limits to oil drilling. We were successful in doing that, even though 
no other Outer Continental Shelf off the United States is off-limits. 
In the administration's 5-year plans, they have complied with that 
because the off-limits to oil drilling is until the year 2022. 
Therefore, in the next 5-year plan, from 2017 to 2022, the 
administration honored that. It is, after all, the law.
  But why is Florida different than others? Well, in the first place, 
there is no oil off of Florida. People think of where the oil is. It is 
off of Louisiana. The sediment came down the Mississippi River for 
millions of years and was compacted by the Earth's crust, and that 
formed these oil deposits. There is a lot of oil in the central Gulf of 
Mexico and, indeed, that is what is happening. A lot of oil is being 
produced there. That is the first reason. There is not oil off of 
Florida.
  But there are other reasons, not the least of which is of all the 
Gulf Coast States, Florida has the most beaches and, therefore, the 
economy is directly charged with the fact of having those pristine, 
sugary white beaches as such an attraction for our guests to come to 
Florida and enjoy nature's seaside.
  Well, we found out, as a result of the gulf oilspill, that even 
though just a little oil reached Florida--Pensacola Beach was 
blackened, tar mats came into Pensacola Bay, Destin got oil on the 
beach, and some tar balls got as far east as Panama City Beach. So 
people saw those pictures of oil covering the beach and they thought 
that was the entire State of Florida and they didn't come. For a whole 
season, the guests, the visitors, the tourists did not come. So the 
motels were not filled and the restaurants were not filled and the 
drycleaners, and all the ancillary businesses associated with a tourism 
economy on the coast, they did not come.
  Now, there is also, obviously, the environmental interests because we 
do have a lot of the bays and estuaries and marsh grasses where 
critters spawn so much of the marine life in the Gulf of Mexico, and it 
starts in these bays and estuaries. That is obviously a reason as well. 
But there is a special reason why we have kept oil off our shores. 
Bottlenose dolphins in the gulf have been dying at unprecedented rates 
over the last 5 years. This is one of those sick dolphins. So from the 
BP spill, science is showing, in fact, what we intuitively knew. And 
just yesterday, a team of scientists confirmed the Deepwater Horizon 
oilspill contributed to the highest number of dead bottlenose dolphin 
strandings on record in the northern Gulf of Mexico.
  So it certainly makes little sense that we would seek more drilling 
in even riskier areas when we are still picking up the pieces from the 
last major oilspill.
  Today, I am introducing legislation that implements many of the hard 
lessons learned in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon BP oilspill. This 
legislation is going to make sure that NOAA and the Coast Guard have 
the tools to prevent, to prepare for, and to respond to marine 
oilspills.
  The bill is going to give gulf coast communities a seat at the table 
in the decisions about oil drilling that affects their way of life. It 
will strengthen State-level planning for oilspills or seismic 
exploration. But, most importantly, the bill will protect Florida from 
Big Oil's reach by keeping the eastern Gulf of Mexico off-limits beyond 
2022 and in statute until 2027.
  Back in 2006, we passed the bipartisan Gulf of Mexico Energy Security 
Act. In that act, that is what we did in establishing this off-limits 
in law. But now, some of our neighboring States, at the behest of Big 
Oil, are trying to drill again and to drill off of Florida.
  We are going to do everything we can to make sure we don't lose 
another tourism season. We are going to do everything we can to make 
sure we don't lose an entire year for our recreational fishermen, 
charter boat fishermen, as well as the commercial fishermen. Drilling 
off the coast is not what the people of Florida want. We want fishing 
vessels hauling in prize catches, not Coast Guard vessels skimming oil. 
We want dolphins rolling in the waves, not washing ashore, and we want 
sunbathers on the beaches, not HAZMAT workers.
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