Bill Nelson: “I talked at length with the senior Senator from North Carolina earlier today. Senator Edwards is quite concerned about…”

“I talked at length with the senior Senator from North Carolina earlier today. Senator Edwards is quite concerned about the oil drilling off of the Outer Banks. The people directly affected are crying out. There are States that do not mind drilling off the coast--the State of Louisiana, the State of Texas. There are about 2,000 wells in the Gulf of Mexico and they are primarily off of Texas and Louisiana, some off of Alabama, some off of Mississippi, all of those States whose Senators do not seem to mind because it must reflect their people's feeling that there be oil drilling. In the Gulf of Mexico, the geology shows that is where the oil and gas is, in the western gulf, in the central gulf, but not in the eastern gulf. The people of Florida simply do not think it is worth the tradeoff of spoiling the environment and spoiling a $50 billion tourism industry to take the risk where the geology shows there is very little likelihood of oil, to take the risk that a well will be hit, that an oilspill will occur.”