Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I have raced to the floor simply because it has come to my attention that there are some Senators who are utilizing this Energy bill, which is for a very valued purpose, a purpose of energy efficiency. Some Senators are utilizing this legislation for their own purpose by proposing amendments that will ultimately threaten the environmental integrity off of Florida's gulf coast and will threaten the U.S. military and its ability to maintain the largest testing and training area for not only the United States but for the world. I want to refer to a map of the Gulf of Mexico and show you everything. Here is the tip of Florida. This is Pensacola, Naples, Tampa, and down here are the Florida Keys and Key West. Everything in yellow in the Gulf of Mexico--and this is the law--is off-limits to drilling until 2022. It happens to be a bipartisan law that was passed back in 2006. It was cosponsored by my then-fellow Senator from Florida, a Republican, Mel Martinez. Why did the two of us make this a law? The drilling is over here, everything to the west. The first question is: Where is the oil? Mother Nature decided to have the sediments go down the Mississippi River for millions of years where it compacted into the Earth's crust and became oil. The oil deposits are off of Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, and there is a little bit off of Mississippi. There really isn't much oil out here. In addition, why did we want this area kept from drilling? Take a look at that.…”