Bill Nelson releases results of offshore drilling survey

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., released today the results of the offshore drilling survey he sent at the end of July. He says he received responses from 18,000 Floridians.

And the survey says ...

• 21.36 percent want to develop comprehensive energy legislation to decrease our reliance on fossil fuels, like foreign oil.
• 18.76 percent want to raise the cap on damages companies would owe from an oil spill from $75 million to at least $10 billion.
• 17.75 percent want to find out whether there's a lot of oil from the Gulf spill beneath the surface and what the long-term threat might be.
• 15.84 percent want to provide tax breaks for small businesses hurt by the spill and for employees who hire workers displaced by it.
• 15.58 percent want to keep oil rigs away from states like Florida that rely on tourism, fishing and beach-front economies.
• 10.71 percent want to conduct a criminal investigation and put those most responsible for the spill behind bars.

Nelson says: "Our government must enact a national program to transition us from petroleum to alternative and synthetic fuels -- and we need to act with the same urgency that led us to reach the moon within the 1960s. We also need more solar, wind and thermal energy, and safer nuclear power."