Fox News - Transcript

Interview

MR. CAVUTO: With us now, Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida. She's opposed to this drilling.

Congresswoman, your argument is that it would kill Florida tourism, kill those who value these pristine views they get off the coast, right?

REP. SCHULTZ: Yeah, well, that's for starters. But let's also address the fact that drilling off the coast of anywhere around the United States is not going to do anything to reduce gas prices.

MR. CAVUTO: How do you know that? How do you know that?

REP. SCHULTZ: Well, because the president's own Department of Energy acknowledges that even if you dropped oil rigs right now into the Outer Continental Shelf, it would not produce oil, at the earliest, for 10 years. And even then would only reduce gas prices, in ANWR, for example, by a penny possibly. So we're not talking about --

MR. CAVUTO: Well, that report -- I know the report you're referring to, Congresswoman. And that report doesn't address offshore development. But your point is taken. One of the things that I'm raising with you --

REP. SCHULTZ: It does address --

MR. CAVUTO: -- you have argued that this is a big issue for your state, for coastal states, because the fact that you would have this drilling occurring.

REP. SCHULTZ: We have a $65 billion tourism industry, Neil.

MR. CAVUTO: But you notice how selfish that sounds? Like you're saying, not in my backyard, and your residents are paying.

REP. SCHULTZ: I'm not saying that.

MR. CAVUTO: Your residents are saying, look, Congresswoman, we're dealing with record-high gas prices. We won't even see these rigs from our condos that are on the ocean. They're many, many miles out. So you're killing us. What do you say to them?

REP. SCHULTZ: No. What we're saying is that more drilling isn't necessary because we have 68 million acres that already are available in the United States for drilling. And the oil industry is not drilling on that acreage now.

MR. CAVUTO: By the way, you realize, Congresswoman, that the reason why they're not drilling on a lot of that acreage is they discovered that a lot of this land that they leased -- they buy it up in the hope that it will be found to have a lot of oil -- they found that a lot of these acres don't have a lot of oil. But continue.

REP. SCHULTZ: No. The reason that they're not drilling on it is because it's expensive to explore for the oil that perhaps would be under it. And so all of this --

MR. CAVUTO: Do you think in this day and age, Congresswoman --

REP. SCHULTZ: Neil, let me answer a question.

MR. CAVUTO: No, no. But would anyone omit the opportunity to make more money when there's money under the ground right there to be had?

REP. SCHULTZ: We really need to make sure that we get away from more drilling and more drilling. Let them drill on the oil leases that they have now or lose it. Let them actually pay royalties for the privilege of drilling on the land that they can drill on now. Let's make sure that the most profitable industry in America is not being forgiven royalties and taxes that they should be paying while at the same time ignoring the need to invest in alternative energy research. That's what we're saying as Democrats we need to do and not try to pull the wool over the eyes of the voters and make them think that more drilling is somehow going to reduce the price at the pump.

MR. CAVUTO: Well, I agree with you, Congresswoman. Congresswoman, we're not saying that more drilling single-handedly is going to solve it. We are saying, just as you aptly pointed out, that looking for alternatives, looking at nuclear, looking at solar, looking at wind, in conjunction with looking at more oil, makes us less beholden to people half the world --

REP. SCHULTZ: The use the acreage that is available now. Use the acreage that is available now.

MR. CAVUTO: Congresswoman, you are way too smart for this.

REP. SCHULTZ: Or lose it, or give it up.

MR. CAVUTO: All right. If they were to say to you that two- thirds of that 68 million acres has been found not to have enough oil to make it worth the effort, and they said, Congresswoman --

REP. SCHULTZ: But that's not the case.

MR. CAVUTO: Well, wait a minute. No. By the way, it is. If they swept around, Congresswoman, and said --

REP. SCHULTZ: Says who?

MR. CAVUTO: -- we'll give up those leases if you give us ANWR, if you give us offshore because there we know there to be oil in large amounts --

REP. SCHULTZ: Says Neil Cavuto? I mean, where has it been said that the 68 million acres that's available for them to drill now doesn't have enough oil to make it worth it? I've seen no documentation. All I hear is Neil Cavuto saying that.

MR. CAVUTO: Well, just as I heard --

REP. SCHULTZ: I mean, I'd like to see some documentation that says that it's not worth drilling on the 68 million acres.

MR. CAVUTO: Congresswoman, I want you to take off your political hat for a second and think like a businesswoman.

REP. SCHULTZ: Let me tell you something, Neil.

MR. CAVUTO: And would it be in a business interest, Congresswoman --

REP. SCHULTZ: No, no, no, no, no. I have the hat on of a mom who drives a minivan. I have the hat on of a mom who drives a minivan that it just cost me $76 to fill up the tank of last week. So trust me when I tell you which hat I have on. I have the hat on of a member of Congress who represents thousands and thousands of working families who are struggling to pay to fill their gas tank.

MR. CAVUTO: Congresswoman, those people are paying through the nose --

(Cross talk.)

Stop the speeches, Congresswoman.

Those people -- Congresswoman, those people in your state are paying through the nose. They know that a lot of the oil that they could extract --

REP. SCHULTZ: And drilling is not going to change that. Investing in alternative energy will.

MR. CAVUTO: So you're not going to look at it? You're not going to look at it? You're saying that in your own backyard, because it might hurt Florida tourism, you're telling the rest of the people in this country over.

REP. SCHULTZ: Yes. Understand, Neil, if you hurt Florida's tourism, your hurt Florida's educational system, you hurt our hospitals, you hurt our ability to make sure we can take care of our sickest children.

MR. CAVUTO: Your residents want it, Congresswoman. They're sick of paying $4, $5 gasoline. They want it! They know that these oil rigs aren't 10 feet off the coastline, they're more than 50 miles off the coastline.

REP. SCHULTZ: You're basing that they want it on the question that was asked of them, which said, in order to lower gas prices -- which drilling will not do -- so let's ask them a question in a neutral way and see what they think. Let's give them -- we can load up some more information and say, if you knew that an oil spill would harm Florida's coastline and its wildlife and our tourism and reduce the tax revenue that we have the ability to educate our people --

MR. CAVUTO: So all that's going to happen, Congresswoman? You're convinced all that is going to happen?

REP. SCHULTZ: Yes. It all could very easily happen because it's happened before. It is not worth the risk. We cannot drill our way out of this problem. And more drilling is not going to result anytime soon, if ever, in a reduction in the price at the pump.

MR. CAVUTO: But you just said you're open for more drilling in these 68 million acres that you can't confirm have oil or not. As long as they're not in Florida --

REP. SCHULTZ: That's because it's already permitted.

MR. CAVUTO: As long as they're not in your back door, right?

REP. SCHULTZ: No, no, on the contrary. In fact, 39 million acres are already under lease in the Gulf of Mexico, and they're only drilling on less than 8 million acres of that. Drill on what you have right off my coast. There's plenty of available acres right off the coast of Florida.

MR. CAVUTO: Congresswoman, if you know that there's a lot of oil in a lot more places than the available leases and oil companies who have been on this show and other shows came back and said, tell the Congresswoman we'll give up these leases if she allows us access to those lands off there?

REP. SCHULTZ: There's no reason to. They should look for the oil that's there now that they already have the right to. We can explore other --

MR. CAVUTO: That sounds like a no, right?

REP. SCHULTZ: What it sounds like is that they don't need to drill for more oil than they already have available to drill for now because it's not going to do anything to reduce the price at the pump, and they know it.

MR. CAVUTO: Okay. And you know that for sure.

REP. SCHULTZ: Pleasure being with you, Neil.

MR. CAVUTO: I wish I could say the same.

REP. SCHULTZ: (Laughs.)

MR. CAVUTO: Congresswoman, seriously, thank you very much.

REP. SCHULTZ: Oh, thanks, thanks.

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