Florida Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio tells The Brody File that despite what happened with the BP oil disaster offshore drilling is “the right place to be”. I interviewed Rubio in West Palm Beach Florida.
Support among Floridians for offshore drilling has dropped from 66 percent to just 42 percent. But Rubio explained why he’s sticking with his long held beliefs that offshore drilling is the right thing to do.
The video and transcription of Rubio’s comments are below.
Marco Rubio: I maintain that offshore drilling is going to happen whether we’re for it or against it because Cuba’s going to drill off its coast. We know China and Russia and Venezuela and Brazil are all exploring in the gulf and off our coasts. I don’t know if it would make us feel any better if it was a Cuban oil rig that blew up and leaked water and petroleum into our waters. My point is that there’s going to be offshore drilling whether America’s part of it or not. The only question before us is how much of our future petroleum needs are going to be met domestically and how much is going to be met by buying it from Hugo Chavez. That’s the only real issue before us.
David Brody: It could hurt you politically in this environment.
Marco Rubio: It’s the right place to be number one. Now let me get this straight. I believe that offshore drilling needs to be done safely. I think that what happened on this rig is not happening on other rigs. We need to find out what it is that happened so that it never happens again. We need to clearly identify the responsible parties which is BP and its subcontractors so that they pay for the economic and ecological damage that they’ve done but at the end of the day there are already existing rigs out there and we have to ensure that what’s happening now never happens on any of those rigs but when it gets to the issue of offshore drilling just remember other countries are going to drill in the Gulf of Mexico with or without us. The only issue before us is how much oil does America want to produce domestically and how much does it want to have to buy from maniacs like Hugo Chavez.”