Don Nickles: “I know in the State of Louisiana and I know also in the State of Texas there is a lot of activity off the coast. I asked…”

“I know in the State of Louisiana and I know also in the State of Texas there is a lot of activity off the coast. I asked my staff to find out what percent of our domestic oil production and gas production right now comes from the Gulf of Mexico. They told me about 25 percent of our domestic oil and 30 percent of our gas is produced in those areas. That is a big chunk of our domestic production: A fourth of the oil and almost a third of our gas. Has that production caused harm to the ecology, to the environment, to the coast of Louisiana, to the wildlife which is so abundant in the southern part of the State of Louisiana?”