Bill Nelson: “I want to draw to the attention of the Senate the considerable concern of 16 million Floridians that the Bush…”

“I want to draw to the attention of the Senate the considerable concern of 16 million Floridians that the Bush administration is trying to drill for oil and gas off the shores of the State of Florida. It is most instructive, if one looks at a map of the Gulf of Mexico, where colored in on the gulf waters are the active drilling leases. One will see clearly that, from the central Gulf of Mexico all the way to the western Gulf of Mexico, almost all of the waters of the gulf are shaded in, indicating active oil and gas drilling leases. Indeed, there is a reason for that. It is because the reserves were there, the oil and gas deposits are there, the future reserves are expected to be there. As a matter of fact, I believe it is 80 percent of all economically recoverable, undiscovered gas reserves on the Outer Continental Shelf--which not only includes the gulf but also the Atlantic and Pacific--80 percent of the Nation's known, recoverable gas reserves in the central and western gulf and 60 percent of the future recoverable oil reserves are in that area too.”