Nelson Wants Investigation of Oil Spill

Sen. Bill Nelson has indicated he will not vote for the climate change bill, if Lindsay Graham's proposal for an expansion of offshore drilling is in the final bill.

"The president needed Lindsey Graham to take the point on this," a Nelson aide told the Huffington Post. "Lindsey wanted the drilling in the gulf. I think the president's plan was viewed as the concession to Republicans in exchange for their support. This incident has killed [that]."

Nelson later came out with a press release urging the White House to ban further offshore drilling.



Nelson is urging an investigation of the spill. He is pressing to have the federal regulatory system included in the investigation.

NELSON: Just how lax did the regulations and the regulators become? You remember several years ago the very heart of the federal government that does the regulation, called the MMS, the Minerals Management Service, you can remember the stories that they had had all kinds of booze parties, all kinds of marijuana parties, and all kinds of sex parties. And this came out in a number of congressional investigations. Well, is this another regulatory system that’s gone on the blink? Compared to the Securities and Exchange Commission that went on the blink and wasn’t watching the home front on Wall Street that we’re now reaping the results from. So, this is what an investigation is going to be about.

Nelson is showing a surprising amount of spine. The White House needs Nelson's vote on a climate change bill. Graham will add energy industry-friendly amendments to the bill and then not vote for the final product. The White House can not afford to have Democratic defectors.