[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 126 (Wednesday, August 5, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6391-S6392]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. NELSON:
  S. 1999. A bill to authorize the Secretary of the department in which 
the Coast Guard is operating to act, without liability for certain 
damages, to prevent and respond to the threat of damage from pollution 
of the sea by crude oil, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, tourists flock every year to enjoy the 
inviting waters of the South Florida--sunbathing on Miami Beach, 
boating in Biscayne Bay National Park, snorkeling on treasured coral 
reefs of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. And you might take 
a souvenir picture at the Southernmost Point in Key West. Standing 
there, you are closer to Cuba--90 miles away--than you are to Miami, 
which is 160 miles away.
  In 1977, the U.S. negotiated a Maritime Boundary with Cuba for 
fisheries and other continental shelf activities, like oil exploration, 
roughly halfway between our nations--or 45 miles from the Southernmost 
Point in Key West. Since 2005, several oil companies have leased blocks 
in Cuban waters south of that line to drill for oil. Can you imagine 
the damage to our environment and our economy if oil was to coat two 
national parks, a national marine sanctuary, a national wildlife 
refuge, iconic coral reefs, world-class fisheries, and beloved beaches? 
It would be catastrophic. In fact, the Florida Keys National Marine 
Sanctuary was created specifically to protect against threats like an 
oil spill.
  In 2012, four companies tried and failed to find oil. But recently, 
an Angolan company has ramped up plans to drill in late 2016. We are 
simply not prepared to protect U.S. interests from an oil spill off 
Cuba. The loop current that saved South Florida from the brunt of the 
damage from Deepwater Horizon becomes the Florida current as it runs 
between the Keys and Cuba and then those waters enter the Gulf Stream 
hugging the coast of Florida and heading north along the eastern 
seaboard. An oil spill in Cuban waters would almost certainly follow 
that same path.
  For a decade, I have fought tooth and nail to protect our environment 
and economy from a Cuban spill. Given the news that drilling will 
resume next year, it is imperative that the agencies we rely on to 
prevent and respond to oil spills are prepared. And even though Cuba is 
the closest threat, an oil spill off Mexico, Bahamas, or Jamaica could 
enter U.S. waters. So today, I am introducing the Caribbean Oil Spill 
Intervention, Prevention, and Preparedness Act--a comprehensive 
framework to protect U.S. interests from foreign oil spills.
  The bill would strengthen the authority of the Coast Guard to 
intervene

[[Page S6392]]

and make sure that we have up-to-date accurate information about the 
ocean currents off of Cuba's coast so that we know where an oil spill 
might go. It requires the relevant Federal agencies to negotiate oil 
pollution prevention and response with countries bordering the Gulf of 
Mexico and Straits of Florida especially to protect our National Marine 
Sanctuaries like the Florida Keys. The bill ensures we have a plan to 
protect coral reef ecosystems all through the Straits of Florida--
because domestic fisheries rely on healthy corals. Finally, it requires 
any oil company that wants to drill in both U.S. waters and Cuban 
waters to show they have the resources and plans to adequately prepare 
for a worst-case oil spill in both areas.
  These common-sense provisions should have broad support. I urge my 
colleagues to support the bill.
                                 ______