Executive Session

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. LeMIEUX. Mr. President, I come today to the floor of the Senate to discuss the environmental and economic disaster that is happening right now with the oilspill from the British Petroleum and Transocean rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to be in Pensacola, FL, and to walk on the beautiful beaches. The good news is, and the news that is not being reported as much as it is should be by the press, our beaches are open, they are beautiful, people are out there enjoying the Sun and the surf, and it is still safe to go to the beach. It is still safe to go fishing in the Gulf of Mexico off the shores of Florida and do all of the other things people enjoy doing in our beautiful State.

Unfortunately, we are starting to see oil wash up onshore. It is washing up not in the form so much as a tar ball but sort of a goopy substance. We are spotting that on the beach. I have walked on the beaches, and it is distressing to see that. When you pick it up and touch it, it has sort of a pudding-like consistency. It obviously has the touch and feel of oil.

The concern we have, as this disaster approaches day 50, is, how much can this ecosystem bear? How much oil can be spewed into the water before it has a tremendously damaging impact upon the beaches in Florida? We have already seen what it has done to the marshland of Louisiana. Florida has more than 1,200 miles of coastline around the State. Potentially, this oil could impact up to 1,000 miles if the oil gets itself into the Loop Current and makes its way around the southern tip of Florida up the east coast. That is everyone's worst nightmare.

The good news is the people of Florida who are working in city government, local government, and State government are doing an excellent job to prepare. I had the opportunity to meet with Mayor Mike Wiggins of Pensacola, with commission chairman Grover Robinson of the Escambia County Commission, as well as Larry Newsome, county administrator, who are doing a great job of preparing. There are teams of people on the beaches picking up the oil and debris where needed. They have folks on standby, ready to go to work if needed in western Florida.

We need to do more. There needs to be a coherent plan on how we are going to prevent the oil from coming ashore and to mitigate its impact if and when it does. Tourism is tremendously important to Florida. In Florida, our environment and economy are inextricably linked. We cannot have any more damage than the State can sustain in the marsh or beach areas. We do not want oil washing up on the shore all along the coast of Florida.

I have called upon this administration to be more aggressive. I want to see the President in Florida. I want to see him more than just a couple hours there. I want to see him working through the solutions like Governor Jindal is doing in Louisiana, like Governor Crist is doing in Florida, like former Governor Jeb Bush did when we had 9 or 10 hurricanes in 2004 and 2005--on the ground, managing through the crisis, pushing people for solutions. It is not enough to have the good work of the Coast Guard. And they are doing good work. It is not enough to call on the Department of Interior or the Department of Homeland Security. We need the President on the ground pushing for those solutions. He is a very bright man. He is the President of the United States. If he is there, working through these problems the way the Governors do, we will get better solutions.

We need more skimmers off the coast of Florida. I am sure my other Gulf State friends would like to see skimmers as well. They prevent the oil from coming ashore.

Are we thinking outside the box? Are we looking for every other possible alternative? Are there skimmers that can be brought in, large supertanker skimmers such as were used in the Persian Gulf when they had oilspills?

Who is leading the effort to push for new solutions and new ideas? Who is vetting all of the possible opportunities presented to clean up the oil? We want to see this leadership from the top, from the Commander in Chief. The worst-case scenario is that none of the efforts going on right now are going to stop the oil from spilling. We have this cap collector BP has put on. It is having some success. That is good news. Let's hope it has all the success in the world. But if we have to wait until the end of the summer for the relief wells to go into effect--and what if they don't work as well as intended, what if there are setbacks along the way, what if it is the fall--how many tens of thousands of barrels of oil are going to spill into the Gulf of Mexico? What is the plan? What is being prepared?

We need to see the President show more leadership. The people of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida need that. While BP is at fault, this is not a BP problem; this is an American problem. We need to see the President more thoroughly involved. The claims process has already started. British Petroleum has paid out about $48 million. There is now a claims process center in Pensacola. Senator Vitter and I have put together a piece of legislation to expedite claims. That should get passed by this body. There is a lot we can do here in Washington to help relieve the pain of our fellow Floridians and others in the gulf. Ultimately, job 1 is to stop the oil from spilling. Job 2 is to mitigate and prevent the oil from coming ashore. We want to see the President of the United States leading the effort.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source