Bill Nelson: “I want to mark the contrast in the debate that you have heard: Every Senator who has spoken in opposition to this…”

“I want to mark the contrast in the debate that you have heard: Every Senator who has spoken in opposition to this amendment to stop oil drilling off Florida in the eastern Gulf of Mexico planning area is from an oil State. But it is an interesting contrast that every opponent to us trying to protect against oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico is from an oil State. Senator Graham, my senior colleague from the State of Florida, has eloquently pointed out a number of things. He pointed out in his summary that these light-colored areas are active leases but no drilling has occurred. Senator Graham and I have offered a bill to buy back these leases, just as President George Herbert Walker Bush had proposed buying back a bunch of leases off of the Ten Thousand Islands off of Naples, off of Fort Myers that occurred about a decade ago. We want to get rid of these, including the lease called the Destin Dome, where Chevron has an active permit to drill.”