call: quorum call quorum call:

mr. nelson nelson: mr. presiden?

the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. nelson: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: mr. president, i have 11 unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: mr. president, i understand we are in morning business. i ask to speak for up to 20 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, the senate energy committee has just approved an energy bill that adopted a very controversial amendment that

would allow oil to be drilled ten miles off of the coast of florida. i want to refer -- here is the peninsula of florida. this is the panhandle of flori florida. pensacola, fort walton beach, panama city, cape sandblast, sosome of your largest military installations in america are here, the pensacola naval air station, the big complex of the air force, egeland air force base in that area of fort walton beach. down here in panama city, tindle air force base, where they are training all of the f-22 pilots.

as you can see on this map, the rest of the gulf coast of the united states. alabama, mississippi, louisiana, and then texas. and this was a chart that when senator dorgan offered his amendment, he offered up this chart showing the western planning area of the gulf, the central planning area and what is known as the eastern planning area. the chart shows that in legislation that we passed in 2006, a compromise was struck whereby the oil industry could drill in an additional 8.3 million acres in addition to the 33 million acres that they

have under lease in the central and western gulf, 33 million that they have under lease that they have not drilled, that we worked out an additional 8.3 million acres in this tan area called lease sale 181. in exchange, the compromise was, for the protection of the gulf of mexico, everything east of this longitude line known as the military mission line. why? because everything east of this line is the largest testing and training area for the united states military in the world. it is where we are training our f-22 pilots out of tyndall air

force base. it is where we are training our navy pilots in pensacola. and it is where we are testing some of the most sophisticated weapons systems in the world that are under the test and evaluation component of egeland air force base. and this is the area. it's where also we are training our navy squadrons at key west naval air station, and they'll send in a squadron down here to key west, and when they lift off from the boca chica runway, within two minutes they're over protected airspace so they don't have a lot of travel time, they don't spend a lot of gas getting to their training area, which is out here.

so you see that we have this area that is now protected. now, i would like to enter into the record a letter from the secretary of defense, and this is actually from the previous secretarsecretary of defense, sy rumsfeld, in which he says that the uses of this for oil and gas production would be incompatible with the needs of the united states military in this test and training area. and i will submit that for the record, if i may. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: all right. mr. president, here's what people don't wanted -- don't understand, is that the committee adopted this amendment 13-10. they don't realize this is the largest testing and training area for the united states

military. that's why in the legislation, in law, we protect everything east of that line that we passed three years ago. and in return, we gave the oil boys an additional 8.3 million acres in there, 181, and lease sale 181 south. that, by the way, is in addition to their 33 million acres that they have under lease here and here that they have not drilled. now, why do the oil companies want to have this additional lease area when, in fact, they have a lot of leases that they haven't drilled, 33 million acres plus another 8 million acres? well, it's because a lease has a

legal value that if there is estimated to be any oil or gas there, that has a value. and those leases then become a part of the assets of the company which increases the value of the company which, of course, then makes their stock more -- worth more. but what we struck in the compromise three years ago that everybody out here on this senate floor agreed to, agreed to, i might say, with senator martinez and me, was in exchange for getting that additional area that they would leave the military mission test and evaluation and training area

alone. now, in the last round of brac, which is the base realignment and closure commission, the "r" of brac is realignment. is it any wonder that in that round of evaluating military bases that they decided to send all the pilot training for the new stealth fighter, the f-22, that they brought it here to tyndall air force base at panama city. why? because they've got that area. listen, this fighter does a dogfight at 1 1/2 mach, twice what an f-22 -- twice what an f-15 and an f-16 does a dogfight at. they're doing a dogfight, doing tight turns at about .75 mach. the new f-22 stealth fighter

will go into and engage another aircraft at 1.5 mach. when you do turns at twice the speed of an f-15 and f-16, you've got a much wider radius of a turn. that's why they need all that area. and when they are dropping on targets, they're dropping live ordinance. -- ordnance. when we are testing here at egeland air force base long-range weapons systems, some that we release from airplanes, some that are shot from ships, we need hundreds of miles of range. that's why the operative policy of the department of defense is that you can't have oil rigs out here to interfere with national

security preparation. but apparently that's not why 13 members of the senate energy committee understood this argument. now, there's another argument. and, by the way, i might point out that in that realignment of the bases that they're bringing into egeland air force base right here all the pilot training for the new f-35. that's the joint strike fighter that is still being developed but that will be coming out within the next few years. that's the joint strike fighter for the navy, the marines, and the air force. and that joint strike fighter will be sold to some of our allies. and where is the pilot training?