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Fresh Squeezed Politics - March On Politics Blog

Nelson vows to take on “the oil boys”

Posted Jun 12, 2009 by William March

Updated Jun 12, 2009 at 11:32 AM

Sen. Bill Nelson, mounting a major public relations offensive against the latest move to open areas near Florida shores to oil and gas exploration, held a news conference at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa this morning and vowed to “grind the Senate to a halt” if necessary to stop the drilling move.

Nelson came prepared with easels and charts to dramatize what he said is a major new threat to Florida beaches. One showed an oil spill on a Pinellas County beach; one a map of the Gulf of Mexico showing the central and western gulf shores pockmarked with oil rigs; and one a view of clearly visible downtown Tampa buildings from the western end of the Howard Frankland Bridge —the same distance, he said, that oil rigs would be from Florida beaches under a Senate measure passed in committee this week.

“The oil boys are at it again,” he said, referring to repeated attempts in the past few years to expand oil and gas drilling into the eastern gulf.

The proposal, which would allow driling within 10 miles of Panhandle beaches and 45 miles of the rest of Florida’s Gulf coast, “will convert our world-class beaches into industrial waste zones,” with pipelines, storage tanks and drilling rigs, he said.

Nelson argues that the eastern gulf is the last remaining area off U.S. shores for military aircraft and naval training exercises, and displayed another chart of a 2005 letter from then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld saying oil drilling was incompatible with military activities.

He also contended:

—That drilling in the eastern gulf won’t have any near-term effect on gasoline prices, which are the result of speculation in oil futures.

—That oil companies want to drill in the eastern Gulf only because it’s close to their western and central Gulf oil fields, where existing infrastructure will make cheaper and higher-profit.

—That “Big Oil” is breaking an agreement reached three years ago that allowed new exploration in parts of the eastern Gulf for the first time, in return for a ban on drilling within 100 miles or more of Florida shores.

Nelson was reacting to a 13-10 vote in a Senate committee this week to add the expanded exploration areas to a major energy bill likely to come to the Senate floor next fall. He promised a filibuster if necessary to stop it.

Even though the energy bill “is needed legislation,” he said, “I’ll use every parliamentary tactic that is available to me” to stop it—“I’ll grind the Senate to a halt if I have to.”

Nelson said he has one important ally—Republican Florida Sen. Mel Martinez—but has been unable so far to convince Gov. Charlie Crist to join them. Crist reversed his position last year to favor more drilling in the Gulf.

But Nelson also acknowledged his crusade could be sharply undercut by the Florida Legislature, which came close this spring to voting to allow drilling even closer to Florida beaches than the Senate provision would, and may pass such a measure next spring.

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