Bill Nelson, U.S. Senator from Florida: Media Release: Senate vote signals drilling fight not over

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Senate this morning upheld industry plans to inventory oil under the eastern Gulf of Mexico by defeating an amendment that would have stripped the requirement from a broader energy bill.

By a 52-44 vote, senators rejected an attempt by Florida Sens. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, and Mel Martinez, a Republican, to block the inventory of oil and gas using seismic explosions in the eastern Gulf. It's now likely the inventory language will be part of the final energy legislation.

"The Bush White House is hell-bent on drilling off Florida," Nelson charged after the vote. "Why take an inventory in area where they've guaranteed there won't be any drilling? All it is - is the next step toward drilling off the coast of Florida."

The inventory provision signaled a continuation of the high-stakes fight to protect Florida's tourism-based economy from the oil industry. It was just last week that Nelson won an agreement - a pledge from both the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources - that preserves an existing ban on drilling off the coast of Florida until 2012.

Additionally, that agreement protects a large portion of the Gulf, known as Lease Sale 181, which isn't specifically covered by the moratorium on drilling issued by President Clinton in 1998.

Nelson and Martinez said they'll now try to get an agreement from legislative leaders that would let Florida decide not to allow an inventory, if state leaders don't want it. "There may be a compromise that will allow us to just take Florida out of this [inventory]," Martinez said after the vote.

###