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Senator visits springs: Changes called for at meeting

Photo by Dave Sigler
Jim Kraus, manager of Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, talks to U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson during a trip the senator made to Three Sisters Springs in Crystal River. Kraus was explaining to Nelson how manatees and humans interact in the spring-fed waterways that make up the wildlife refuge. Nelson has agreed with the value of preserving the area but warned the supporters of the project about budget constraints.

When U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson convened a town hall meeting in Citrus County on Thursday, the audience was bristling with questions that centered mainly around four topics.

In order, they were: the nation's energy policy and gas prices, health care, and veterans' care, and spending and the Iraq war. All the issues need big changes, Nelson said.

County Commissioner John Thrumston, the board's liaison for Nelson's office, said he worked for about six months to get Nelson to the county. Nelson does town hall meetings around the state as his time allows, and he was in the middle of a swing from North Florida down to Ft. Meyers before heading back to Washington, D.C., where he said he was going to argue the case for Florida's Democratic primary votes and its delegation to the Democratic Convention.

Nelson has warned the National Democratic Party of a "train wreck" if it does not allow the Florida Primary votes the na-tional party has so far disallowed because the state party held it primary early. He said Thursday everyone's vote has to count.

Energy policy
On the price of oil and the nation's energy policy, Nelson said the oil companies have been trying to keep the nation's attention off the idea of weaning the nation from its oil dependency.

He said the real story of what happened about oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico recently is that the oil companies wanted 2 million more acres toward Tampa Bay but didn't get what they wanted for a number of reasons. First, there is the threat to the state's tourism that is much based on Florida beaches. Second is the threat to the bays and estuaries that are critical to so much marine life off the Florida coast.

Another reason is the restricted military airspace off western Florida that is crucial to military training. It is the largest such area the military has and live fire is used, which would not mix with oilrigs, he said.

What the companies did get, however, was 8.3 million acres, though not toward Tampa Bay as they wanted. Nelson noted the companies already have 35 million acres owned or under lease for oil exploration. "It's the same old shell game," he said.

Though the oil companies would like to keep the public attention off alternative forms of energy, Nelson said, the issue of ethanol as an alternative has come to the forefront. He said as a result of the Farm Bill more research was being funded and that the University of Florida is researching the feasibility of making ethanol from things other than corn or cane sugar, including trees, grass and even algae.

One member of the audience said there is an abundance of coal in the country, and the technology is available to get oil from it - is even used in Montana - and he felt the government should be pursuing that avenue and not bowing to the objections from the oil industry.

"You got the picture," Nelson said, smiling, and added that he agreed with using coal and had voted for it. It was only re-cently, he said, that backers had gotten the votes to pursue the idea.

Nelson said that an extremely tight, skittish oil market - with increasing demand from China and India and speculators driving up prices - was to blame for the current gas prices. He said one Mobile executive said in recent hearings that if the market were in a normal supply and demand mode, the prices would be $55 a barrel instead of $135.

He said that just with older vehicles using 10 percent ethanol, newer ones using 85 percent, and using ethanol in hybrids, the situation would improve significantly.

He also said he and a minority in the Senate had tried for eight years to mandate increased miles per gallons for vehicles but never got the backing of the White House. The one bill they got through - 35 miles per gallons phased in over 12 years - exempted light trucks and SUVs. And that, he said, was what it boiled down to: leadership on the issue.

"We've got the capability to do something about this right now. It's a matter of political will - We've got the technology. We ought to be able to do it."

Health care
On health care, one woman said she was almost destroyed by health care costs and now she has to pay $50 a month with a $5,000 deductible.

Nelson said he has filed a bill for a one-payer system in which insurance companies bid on pools of millions of people from different delineated areas of the nation. The winning companies would then service their pools, which would give choices of coverage at more affordable prices but would cover everyone, including the 47 million in the nation who don't have coverage now.

He said the bill has gained bipartisan support and has done so "because everybody is beginning to realize the health care system we have now is not working." Again he said the situation is where it is because the weight of the White House has not been behind the change.

The single payer system will be adopted, he said, "It's just getting from here to there. It is a torturous process."

Veterans benefits
On veterans' benefits, one member of the audience said she did not agree that veterans should all get the same benefits but they should be based on length of service. Nelson said he disagreed, and he advocated the benefits now being proposed for vets, noting that National Guard troops and reservists were serving two and three tours, something they never expected. "I think we ought to honor them," he said.

He said that the Veterans Administration has had a number of problems, even as it was evident that it would be dealing with current combat veterans' problems for some time to come. He said that was another reason he voted for the Wounded Warri-ors' Act.

Spending, other issues
One resident noted that he thought the minimum wage should go to between $10 and $12 an hour so people could survive, and a builder said the smaller but growing counties needed help in federal highway funding because not being designated urban, they didn't get money they needed to meet growth needs.

One resident asked why more money wasn't going for local and national needs when there was always money allocated for the Iraq war. Nelson said that there were a lot of senators and representatives who simply gave the president what he wanted. He noted that the nation was spending $160 billion a year on the war, and also that it wasn't coming from taxes, but in selling national debt to China and Japan.

"We're going to have to reverse that," Nelson said, adding it was why the next president would have enormous challenges and would have to exhibit real leadership. It was also why the members of the House and Senate would have the courage to make some very unpopular decisions in balancing the budget, lowering spending and increasing revenue, he said.

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