Sen. Nelson's Response to President Bush's Plan to Lift the Ban on Coastal Oil Drilling

Statement

Sen. Nelson's Response to President Bush's Plan to Lift the Ban on Coastal Oil Drilling

The president cruelly is misleading Americans for attempted political gain. He knows ruining our coastlines won't bring down gasoline prices nor solve our energy challenges. In fact, a recent report from inside his administration's own energy office found that increasing offshore drilling will have no impact on gas prices.

To lower gas prices - and by an estimated 25 percent to 50 percent - we must reign in greedy speculators who have been able to bid up crude oil prices to unrealistic and shocking highs largely because of a legal loophole that, in effect, unleashed insider trading since 2001.

Oil now hovers around $145 a barrel, but recent congressional testimony from a leading industry executive revealed the price of crude should be no more than $55 per barrel, given the rules of supply and demand. That means pump prices for regular unleaded should be about $2.28 a gallon - not more than $4.

This is why I have introduced legislation [ S. 3134 ] that would ban all unregulated speculative trading in oil futures. If Congress passes this bill, I believe we can bring gas prices back down to earth.

Meantime, the oil companies loudly will be claiming they need to drill in new areas off the coasts of Florida and California. They'll argue this is going to increase the supply of oil. But they won't be telling you they are NOT drilling on 32 million of 39 million acres already under lease from the federal government in the Gulf of Mexico.

And they won't be telling you that more than 8 million new acres they got in the Gulf two years ago has done nothing to bring down prices. Sen. [ Mel ] Martinez and I passed the legislation that opened these new areas, while at the same time protecting until 2022 the eastern Gulf of Mexico from any new drilling and the kind of political ruse we're seeing today.

Fact is, the industry should be sinking wells in areas already under lease, before demanding control of millions of new acres or destroying long-protected lands.

Clearly, Americans are being gouged. But we cannot allow the administration to take advantage of the situation to give away the store before the president leaves office. Instead, we need to reduce gas prices by curbing profiteering and excessive speculation.

That's a real solution for the short term. And for the long run, we have to rapidly develop alternative fuels and vehicles, like cars that run on hydrogen, not petroleum.

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