[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 202 (Tuesday, December 12, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7957-S7958]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



      Department of the Interior 5-Year Offshore Oil and Gas Plan

  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, there are all kinds of reports swirling 
around Washington, and we are hearing from those reports that the Trump 
administration is about to give a huge, early Christmas present to the 
oil industry. The reports are, the Department of the Interior is 
preparing to unveil a new 5-year plan for offshore oil and gas 
drilling--one that would open up the entire Atlantic coast of the 
United States to drilling. This new 5-year plan, which would go into 
effect in 2019, would replace the current 5-year plan that was 
finalized just last year and doesn't expire until 2022.
  Why is the Department of the Interior in such a rush to waste 
taxpayers' money to write a new one? The answer is, the oil industry 
wants to start drilling in these areas now, and the Trump 
administration is going to let them do it. While it hasn't been 
released yet, we are hearing that the administration's new plan will 
open up the entire Atlantic coast to offshore drilling--from Maine to 
as far south as Cape Canaveral. Let me show you why that is a problem.
  This is the east coast of the United States. This is Maine. This is 
Florida. This is Cape Canaveral. This is Fort Pierce, FL. Look what 
happens on the Atlantic coast off the eastern continental United 
States. These are all military testing areas. Every one of these 
hatched areas--every one of these blocks--is of a place that has 
limited access because of military testing.
  Take, for example, all of this area off the east coast of Florida. 
There is a place called the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. There is 
a place called the Kennedy Space Center. We are launching commercial 
and military rockets, and within another year and a half, we will be 
launching American rockets with American astronauts that will go, just 
like the space shuttle before them, to and from the International Space 
Station and will carry crews as well as the cargo they already carry.
  When you are launching to the International Space Station or, in 2 
years, when we launch the largest rocket ever from the Kennedy Space 
Center--the forerunner to the Mars Program, taking humans to Mars, or 
in the case of the new Mars rocket, called the SLS, the Space Launch 
System--where do you think it will drop its solid rocket boosters? It 
will drop them precisely out here, which is exactly why you cannot have 
oil rigs out here.
  All of the commercial rockets that come out of Cape Canaveral right 
now put up a host of communications satellites; that is, a 
constellation of satellites. How do you think we get our pinpoint GPS 
here on Earth? Many of those rockets are coming right out of the Cape 
Canaveral Air Force Station, and, increasingly, there is commercial 
activity at the Kennedy Space Center, which is collocated with the Cape 
Canaveral Air Force Station.
  What about all of those scientific satellites that are out there that 
give us precise measurements on what is happening to the climate so 
when we then track hurricanes, we know precisely and have such great 
success in predicting the path and the voracity of a hurricane? All of 
those rockets are coming out of Cape Canaveral. They have first stages, 
and when the first stages burn up, they have to fall someplace. You 
cannot have oil and gas production out here.

  It would be the same off of Norfolk, VA. They also have a launching 
point there for NASA--Wallops Island. Yet, in the Norfolk area, all of 
the military does its training out in the Atlantic, and you are going 
to have a whole disruption.
  Take, for example, all of the military assets--spy satellites--that 
go into orbit and are rocketed out of Cape Canaveral. Those first 
stages, when burned up, have to fall. That is why we have a location 
like the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It launches from west to 
east in order to get that extra boost of the Earth's rotation and, 
therefore, needs less fuel to get into orbit.
  This is a prime location. You cannot put oil and gas out here. You 
cannot have oil rigs off of Cape Canaveral, where all of these 
military, NASA, and commercial rockets are going, as well as 
governmental payloads that are not military.
  We have heard the loud opposition from the Department of Defense, the 
chambers of commerce, fishermen, and coastal communities all along the 
Atlantic that have weighed in against the administration's plan to 
allow drilling off their coasts.
  We thought we had put this puppy to bed last year when the Obama 
administration backed off its plans to have these drilling areas. They 
backed off because of the opposition. They also backed off when it came 
to Florida. Why? Florida has more beaches than any other State. We 
don't have as much coastline. Alaska has the greatest coastline, but 
the last time I checked, Alaska didn't have a lot of beaches. The one 
that is blessed with the beautiful beaches is Florida. When it comes to 
beaches, that means people want to go to the beach, and that means 
there is a significant tourism-driven economy there. We learned what 
happened with just the threat of there being oil on the beach. Remember 
the Deepwater Horizon oil explosion off of Louisiana? Let me show you 
so you don't get confused with all of these colors.
  In essence, all of this yellow over on the other side of Florida, in 
the Gulf of Mexico, means this area is off-limits. It is in law, and it 
is a good thing because when the Deepwater Horizon spilled off of 
Louisiana, the winds shifted, and that oil started drifting to the 
east. It got as far as Pensacola Beach, and it completely blackened the 
white, sugary sands. That photograph went all over the world. Pensacola 
Beach was covered up in oil, and the winds kept carrying it forward. 
Some of it got into Choctawhatchee Bay and the sands of Destin, and 
some of the tar balls went as far east as the Panama City Beach. Then 
the winds shifted and carried it back, and that was the extent of the 
oil on the beach.
  For 1 solid year--a tourist year--the tourists did not come to the 
west coast of Florida because they had seen the pictures of what had 
happened to Pensacola Beach, all of the way down the west coast--the 
Tampa Bay area, Sarasota, the Fort Myers area, Naples, Marco Island. 
The tourists did not come.
  Now let's go back to the Atlantic. When you start to do this, you are 
now threatening the lifeblood of Florida's economy, its tourism-driven 
economy. It is not only a threat to the environment, but it is a threat 
to the multibillion-dollar, tourism-driven economy.
  In 2010, we lost an entire season, as the tourists did not come to 
the west coast of Florida. That is why, when I gave the list of all of 
those entities, including the U.S. Department of Defense, they don't 
want it. It is because

[[Page S7958]]

of the military areas. I also mentioned the chambers of commerce. They 
have awakened to the fact that oil on beaches is a killer of our 
economy. When this plan is announced later today, probably, it will not 
be unusual to see local governments spring into action, like the 
Broward County Board of Commissioners, which has already sent letters 
that oppose drilling off of Florida's coast.
  Floridians understand this issue. That is why, in the past, we have 
had such bipartisan agreement all over Florida--Republicans and 
Democrats alike--to keep drilling off of our coast, but if Big Oil gets 
its way, every inch of the Continental Shelf is going to be drilled. We 
saw what happened less than a decade ago. The scientists would say we 
are still uncovering, for example, the full extent of that BP oilspill 
and its damage.
  I urge our colleagues to take up the bill that was filed earlier this 
year by this Senator, Senator Markey, and others that would block an 
attempt by the administration to open up our coast to oil drilling.
  The stakes are extremely high for the economy of our States all along 
the eastern coast. Georgia has a substantial tourism-driven economy. 
You know South Carolina has Myrtle Beach. What about North Carolina? 
What about Virginia's tourism-driven economy and especially with all of 
the military concentration there? You can go right on up the coast. The 
stakes are exceptionally high. We simply can't risk it.
  I yield the floor.

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