Political Quotes

“I would like to reflect on some realities associated with this project because I think there is a question as to what the risk is. What is the risk to the residents of Florida? What is the true understanding of what this risk is? What are we talking about developing? We are talking about developing, in this lease sale, a significant, known deposit of natural gas. When you take natural gas out of the reserve and you take it ashore and condition it, basically you are taking out the impurities, the wet gas. You are taking the oil that happens to be mixed in it, you are taking it ashore, conditioning it, and then moving the clean gas, in theory, to Tampa where it would be utilized for the benefit of Floridians. What is the risk associated with that conditioned gas? It is pretty minimal. If you had some kind of fracture of that pipeline, you are not talking about unconditioned gas, which includes oil and various components associated with hydrocarbons; you are talking about pure, conditioned gas. It would bubble up and dissipate. You are not talking about moving crude oil or the risks associated with crude oil from a pipeline. We have heard of the NIMBY theory: not in my backyard. I think that has been pretty well exercised. But one of the things that is frustrating--obviously, I do not have a constituency in Florida, but I am sensitive to the concerns of my friend from Florida relative to what is good for his State.”