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Nelson forces an oil drilling guarantee

Florida's senior senator threatens to talk - and delay business - as long as it takes to shield the gulf.

By WES ALLISON and ANITA KUMAR
Published June 15, 2005

WASHINGTON - It had the trappings of great political theater, a break from the scripted humdrum that so often passes for debate in Congress:

The senior senator from Florida in high umbrage, armed with pictures of pristine Florida beaches and crude oil-covered seabirds, threatening to talk all night unless the author of the Senate Energy Bill gave him written assurance that the state's Gulf Coast waters would remain free of oil rigs.

"It is my intention that if we are not going to have the sharing of this information with this senator, then this senator clearly wants to continue explaining the emergency nature of this," Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said late Tuesday afternoon, during the first day of debate on the bill.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, had spent months working with Republicans, Democrats, environmentalists and industry lobbyists to craft the bill. If it passes, it would give the nation its first comprehensive energy plan since 1992.

And now Nelson was threatening to stall it on day one of a two-week debate.

He scarcely could contain himself.

"It's not an effort to avoid you," Domenici told Nelson. "We are not just discussing Florida. We greatly respect you. . . . We can't just drop everything."

After stopping attempts to drill off the state's coast for two decades, Florida's lawmakers are facing an unprecedented number of congressional proposals aimed at opening more of the eastern Gulf of Mexico to drilling.

Several are included in the energy bill, or are expected to be offered as amendments over the next two weeks. Nelson, who is up for re-election next year, and Florida's other senator, Republican Mel Martinez, already had threatened to slow proceedings earlier in the day by pledging to fight the proposals, including a required inventory of gas and oil reserves in all U.S. waters.

"The inventory language that's in the energy bill is a huge problem for Florida," Martinez had said on the floor. "It tantalizes pro-drilling interests. Allowing an inventory is like saying to pro-drilling states, "Come and get it.' "

So by the time Nelson took the floor again, late in the day, Domenici believed the debate already was behind schedule. He leaned toward Nelson across the aisle.

"I'd like us to get a little bit of work done," Domenici said, his voice rising. "We know you're going to win. Nothing is going to happen to Florida. . . . Please understand that you're going to win."

He turned to Martinez, who by chance happened to be chairing the proceedings. "Sen. Martinez, you're going to win."

The more Domenici talked, the angrier he got. "You don't have to come down here every minute. Florida, don't worry!"

Nelson was not convinced.

"This senator cannot evaluate any language unless he sees it," he said evenly. "For some reason it's being shared with every senator in the Senate except this senator from Florida."

Nelson slapped a poster-sized picture of a white, sandy Florida beach on the easel behind him and began talking about the importance of the Gulf Coast to the state's $50-billion-a-year tourism industry.

Next came a picture of seabirds covered in crude oil.

Then the beach again. "This is what we want to protect."

He noted that he had asked for assurances hours ago, after hearing that a troubling amendment might be forthcoming. The amendment, he had heard, would erode the federal bans that protect hundreds of miles of Florida's west coast from oil and gas exploration.

Domenici, clearly flabbergasted: "There are 100 United States senators. I'm not trying to do anything, senator, but get you a proposal as soon as humanly possible. If you choose to delay us further, we are going to get nothing done tonight."

The bill was bipartisan, he said. He had tried to accommodate everyone. Trust him.

Senate rules give each member extraordinary power to derail legislation or presidential nominees simply by stalling, and senators frequently use that power to force concessions. Nelson was using it now.

He said he would yield the floor only "when I see a good-faith effort of sharing the language the senator from Florida has been waiting 61/2 hours for. . . . The senator from Florida is going to continue to talk until it is."

Domenici had had enough. "Senator, you can talk all night, there'll be no language for you."

Nelson turned back to his easel. He put up an aerial shot of azure water and sugar-sand beaches studded with palm trees. Then a picture of workmen in yellow rubber overalls shoveling oil-fouled sand.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., ambled toward the front of the Senate Chamber and asked Nelson to yield the floor for a moment. Nelson agreed, on condition he could have it back.

Reid noted that congressional Republicans had an important dinner with President Bush that evening that would truncate debate. A number of senators were planning to attend the funeral today for former Nebraska Sen. Jim Exon. And on Friday, there's a long-scheduled Senate retreat. "We need to get as much done as we can," Reid said.

Reid handed out copies of a proposal: assurances from the Senate leadership that most of the U.S. coast now protected from oil drilling, including Florida's, would remain protected. It wasn't as strong as Nelson wanted, and he plans to offer a counterproposal today. But it was enough for now.

He and his staff gathered his pictures, and Nelson yielded the floor.

[Last modified June 15, 2005, 00:44:10]