Bill Nelson: “we are on the Energy bill. It is expected that we are going to have a big fight out here, a political fight, regarding…”

“we are on the Energy bill. It is expected that we are going to have a big fight out here, a political fight, regarding the question of miles per gallon--requirements for the manufactured automobiles, light trucks, and then what are medium-size and heavier trucks--what the miles per gallon requirements are going to be. A couple weeks ago, I was on an Intelligence Committee trip all through Africa. Needless to say, there is increasing al-Qaida presence in Africa. Indeed, an organization called AQIM--al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb--is a group that broke through the barriers of the Presidential palace in Algiers, Algeria, and a suicide bomber detonated a bomb right next to the Presidential palace, injuring and killing some people, doing damage to the Presidential palace, but the President was not harmed. What we have is an increasing threat not only to the peoples of Africa but to the interests of the United States. What is one of those interests? One of those interests is all the places from which we get oil. One of those places is the Niger River Delta in the country of Nigeria. I met with the new President of Nigeria. He had just been inaugurated some 5 days earlier, and I believe he understands the significant threat to Nigeria's oil production.”