Political Quotes

“Mr. President, there has been a longstanding question of whether there would be drilling for oil in the eastern Gulf of Mexico off of the State of Florida. This had been settled in law 10 years ago. Then, my colleague Senator Mel Martinez and I passed a portion of legislation called GOMESA. That portion of the legislation put the drilling off of Florida in the eastern Gulf--everything east of a north-south line called the Military Mission Line, which is a line running south of approximately Fort Walton Beach--everything east of that is off limits in law to any kind of oil drilling activity, along with the remainder of the coast of Florida; 125 miles from the coast going all the way over to Pensacola and to the Perdido River, which is the Alabama-Florida line. The reasons for this are many, but not the least of which is called the Military Mission Line. That area of the Gulf off of Florida is the largest testing and training area for the United States military in the world. Compared to other testing ranges, such as the Nevada Test Site-- it dwarfs that site. As we can see, from north to south, we have ranges as far as 300 miles from east to west. For example, off of Naples, FL, all the way west to the Military Mission Line is approximately 250 miles. That has been needed by our U.S. military because of the testing and training.…”