Bill Nelson: “there was a new report published in POLITICO today that read that oil industry lobbyists have been consulting with the…”

“there was a new report published in POLITICO today that read that oil industry lobbyists have been consulting with the Trump administration about drilling off of Florida in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf of Mexico, off of Florida, is off limits to drilling, pursuant to a law that Senator Mel Martinez and I passed in 2006 that prohibits any drilling up until the year 2022. The U.S. Department of Defense--specifically, the Air Force, which runs the Eglin Gulf Test and Training Range--has asked us to extend that moratorium on any oil-related activities until at least the year 2027. The Air Force is requesting this simply because the Eglin Gulf Test and Training Range is the largest test and training range in the world for the U.S. military. When the eastern training for the U.S. Navy was shut down in the Atlantic because the training range at the island of Vieques had been shut down, most of the Navy training for the Atlantic came to the gulf test and training range, not even to speak of the huge U.S. Air Force bases--Eglin Air Force Base, where all of our American and foreign pilots are trained on the F-35, as well as Tyndall Air Force Base, where similar training is done for our American pilots on the F-22. In addition, the training range is of such a significant distance and square mileage that it allows some of the most sophisticated weapons to travel hundreds of miles in the testing of those weapons, most of them by air.…”