Political Quotes

“Mr. President, my worst fears are coming true. The wind that had so blessed us in our State of Florida for going on 7 weeks now shifted a few days ago, and this big spill of oil is moving to the east and to the northeast, and it is closing in on the gulf coast, the northwest gulf coast of Florida. Thus far, most of the more concentrated oil is well off shore. Under the command of the Coast Guard, there are skimmers 25 to 50 miles out from the coast that have a boom that goes out from a fairly decently sized ship that then scoops up that oil into a concentrated area. Then they have what is kind of like a vacuum pump. It is almost like a vacuum cleaner. It sits and floats on top of the water, on top of the oil, and it sucks it up into a pipe, and that goes into a tank or a rubber bladder on top of the ship. Thus far, they have been able to take care of a good bit of that oil. Of course, that is the strategy--to keep the oil offshore; don't let it get to shore because when it does, it messes up your beach and, even worse, it messes up the wetlands. As a matter of fact, when oil gets into wetlands, into marsh grass, into mangroves, you have a problem. More than likely, it is going to take a while for that marsh grass to come back. Mangroves and oil do not mix. Of course, then we are talking about these unique estuaries that spawn so much of our marine life in the Gulf of Mexico. So what we have is a nightmare that potentially is coming to reality.…”