Kathy Castor: “My amendment ensures that we keep the appropriate safety regulations in place for offshore oil drilling to reduce the…”

“My amendment ensures that we keep the appropriate safety regulations in place for offshore oil drilling to reduce the risk of an offshore oil disaster and the devastating impacts on our economy and environment. The Deepwater Horizon blowout of 2010 is still very fresh in our minds. I represent a Gulf Coast district in Florida, in Tampa Bay, and I remember very well the 87 days that oil spewed out of that Deepwater well, the 11 lives lost, and the huge economic losses. One study said that, in Florida, we lost 50,000 jobs because of that blowout, not to mention the environmental catastrophe that it was, that we are still trying to determine the long-term impacts. {time} 1830 For 87 days, the well continued to pump 134 million gallons of toxic oil before it could be stopped. This tarred fisheries, wildlife, and fragile ecosystems. I will always remember the motel owner from Pinellas County who cried because all of her business had evaporated. We didn't even have oil on the Gulf Coast beaches around Tampa Bay, but all of the tourists left. Our lifeblood in Florida is the tourism industry and the fishing industry.…”