Nelson files bill to block expansion of offshore drilling

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and others filed legislation today to block the administration from opening up any additional areas to offshore drilling until at least 2022.
The move comes amid reports that President Trump is preparing to sign an executive order Friday directing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to open up new areas to offshore oil drilling.
Such a move would require Zinke to alter the current five-year oil and gas leasing plan that took effect earlier this year. That plan, which expires in 2022, does not allow oil and gas drilling in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico or off the Atlantic Coast.  The legislation Nelson filed today – along with Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA), Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and others – would prohibit the secretary from making any changes to the current plan.
“Drilling near Florida’s coast poses a direct threat to Florida’s environment and multi-billion-dollar, tourism-driven economy,” Nelson said. “Ever since I was a young congressman, I’ve been fighting to keep oil rigs away from Florida’s coast and I’m not going to stop now.”
Nelson, a long-time opponent of having oil rigs too close to Florida, often cites the state’s unique environment, its multi-billion dollar, tourism-driven economy and the vital national military training areas in the Gulf as reasons why drilling should not be allowed there.
In 2006, he and then-Sen. Mel Martinez successfully brokered a deal to ban drilling off Florida’s Gulf coast through the year 2022. Nelson filed legislation earlier this year to extend the ban an additional five years, to 2027.
The legislation Nelson and others filed today now heads to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee for consideration.
Full text of the bill can be found here.