Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I must say, I have seen political games being played with trying to drill off of the coast of Florida. Not only am I appalled--I have recoiled at this political game--but unfortunately I am not surprised because of what we have seen happen in the last 15 hours. It all started late last week when the Department of the Interior released a new 5-year drilling plan. It virtually had all of the coastal waters--the Outer Continental Shelf of the entire United States--included in this plan, including that area of Florida that is off limits to drilling in law--a law that Republican Senator Mel Martinez and I passed back in 2006 that keeps drilling off of the gulf coast of Florida until the year 2022. This new proposal would open up nearly all of the Federal waters to drilling, including all of the coastal waters of Florida, both the west coast--gulf coast--and the east coast--the Atlantic--and also the Straits of Florida, those waters that come around the Florida Keys, which is the Gulf Stream that comes right up the southeast coast of Florida. The Gulf Stream then goes out across the Atlantic, past Bermuda, and ends up in Northern Europe. Well, our colleagues have heard this Senator many times come and talk about how keeping oil rigs away from Florida's coast is an issue that is important to our State because of our tourism economy but also because of the military missions on the west coast--the gulf--as well as the Atlantic.…”