U.S. senator from Florida who’s a longtime drilling opponent reacts to climate change bill and its offshore oil provisions

The Kerry-Lieberman climate change legislation – just rolled out in Washington – doesn’t amend any part of the 2006 federal law by Sens. Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez that established a 125-mile to 235-mile no drilling zone along Florida’s Gulf of Mexico coast.  The climate bill also includes language previously proposed by Nelson that calls for a suspension of any new offshore drilling until the cause of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig is determined and the Secretary of the Interior certifies that it is safe to continue.

Following are Nelson’s comments about the new climate bill:

“ Florida’s vulnerable to rising sea levels, so we’ve got to do something about climate change.  We don’t, however, need to be drilling for oil right off of Florida’s beaches.  I’m glad the climate bill includes my proposal for a moratorium on any new drilling, until we know what happened aboard the Deepwater Horizon.  Also, they had their eye on expanding drilling into new areas of the Gulf of Mexico near Florida, and I told them to stay out of it.  And I’m glad they listened.  If you remember, we passed a law in 2006 that keeps drilling well offshore in the Gulf.  And the climate change bill doesn’t touch that.  But we still need to do something to protect the Atlantic coast.  We’ve got the Kennedy Space Center over there, and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, not to mention the tourism and beaches in South Florida – and none of that mixes with oil. ”