Nelson requests Senate investigation into oil safety claims
BY LESLEY CLARK – Herald Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Seizing on the oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, Sen. Bill Nelson asked Monday for a rare joint Senate committee investigation into safety claims made by the oil industry.
The request — made along with New Jersey Democratic Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez, who like Nelson oppose oil and gas drilling off their states’ coast — comes as authorities monitored the Gulf spill and tried to use underwater equipment to cap the leak.
