On Oil Spill, Why Obama Should Listen to Sen. Bill Nelson

Since the spill began -- back when we believed only 5,000 barrels of oil a day were seeping into the Gulf of Mexico -- Florida's senior senator, a Democrat, has been on TV, calling for more leadership from President Barack Obama, for more accountability from BP. He was the first to publicly post images of the leaking well online, after he and Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California pressed BP for the footage, putting a dark and billowing face on the underwater menace threatening the Gulf Coast.

In the spill's early days, Nelson wrote to Obama, urging a moratorium on test wells and other offshore exploratory operations until a federal investigation could determine what caused the spill and how to prevent another one. The president later banned all new deepwater wells for six months, and he established a bipartisan national commission to investigate what caused the spill and recommend ways to improve federal regulations on offshore drilling. In his letter Nelson wrote that "each day the Deepwater Horizon test well gushes oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the oil industry's claims about modern, safe and environmentally friendly technology become more and more unbelievable."

Nelson and Sens. Frank R. Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, both Democrats of New Jersey, also introduced legislation expanding oil companies' liability in a spill from $75 million to $10 billion. At one point Nelson even urged the president to engage the Department of Defense in the crisis. But for Nelson, the spill is more than a crisis of political convenience. For decades he has ardently opposed offshore drilling near Florida, even when polling numbers indicated his position might be unpopular. He helped write the federal law that keeps rigs at least 125 miles from Florida's Gulf Coast. In 2008 he introduced unsuccessful legislation imposing new ethics and disclosure guidelines on the Minerals Management Service, which regulates oil drilling.

"Bill Nelson is the only thing that has stood between oil wells and Florida's coasts," said Eric Draper, executive director of Audubon of Florida and a lobbyist who has worked in Tallahassee for more than 20 years. "He has been the most dogged opponent of the oil companies, and the reason we even had an (unsuccessful) oil drilling issue in the (Florida Legislature) is because the oil companies thought if they could get Florida to eliminate the ban on drilling in state waters, that it would make it harder for Nelson to keep the federal line out in the deep water of the Gulf of Mexico."

Nelson's background puts him in a unique position now in a critical state as Obama assumes a more wartime stance toward the spill, which at this point is estimated to be spewing some 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of crude a day into the gulf. Nelson is a fifth-generation Floridian, somewhat rare in a state of transplants, born in Miami and raised in Melbourne, not far from where the shuttle launches on Florida's east coast. He is an Army veteran and career politician who was elected to the state Legislature in 1972 and Congress in 1978, serving six terms before running unsuccessfully for governor. He served on the state cabinet instead and in 2000 was elected to the U.S. Senate.

He orbited the Earth for six days in 1986 as a payload specialist on the space shuttle Columbia, an experience that "gave him a new perspective on the Earth's fragile environment and a greater appreciation of the importance of our nation's space exploration program," according to his website. Nelson has been outspoken against the president on plans to replace the retiring shuttle program with one that would send astronauts into space on private rockets. Florida's Space Coast is poised to lose thousands of jobs when the shuttle program retires later this year.

Meanwhile, the oil spill could cost Floridians nearly 195,000 jobs and $10.9 billion in spending, according to an analysis released by the University of Central Florida. The analysis reflects what would happen if Florida's 23 Gulf Coast counties lose 50 percent of their tourism and leisure jobs and spending. It covers all of Florida's Gulf Coast from the Panhandle to the Keys, although the east coast would be affected, too, if oil drifts into a loop current that would carry it around Florida and into the Atlantic Ocean. In a state so dependant on the tourism and space industries, it is no surprise Nelson is challenging the president on these issues, said Lance DeHaven-Smith, a professor of public administration and policy at Florida State University.

"He's one of Florida's most successful politicians," said DeHaven-Smith, an author of "Government in the Sunshine State: Florida Since Statehood" and "The Battle for Florida: An Annotated Compendium of Materials from the 2000 Presidential Election."

"Florida is a critically important state politically for the presidency, and it's the fourth-largest state in the country. It's the swing state in the election. It's not to be trifled with, and that's why I think maybe the president needs Bill Nelson."