China is drilling for oil off Florida

China is drilling closer to Florida than the US is. Why?

They need oil. We need oil. Why don't we use what we have? "So we can be energy independent." Better explain that to me. The same people who stop oil drilling in the US say they are trying to attain energy independence.

Why does the US Senate outlaw using the oil we have?

George Will:

Drilling is underway 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are.

And the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge:

ANWR is larger than the combined areas of five states (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware), and drilling along its coastal plain would be confined to a space one-sixth the size of Washington's Dulles airport.

Offshore? Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed or damaged hundreds of drilling rigs without causing a large spill. There has not been a significant spill from an offshore U.S. well since 1969. Of the more than 7 billion barrels of oil pumped offshore in the past 25 years, 0.001 percent — that is one-thousandth of 1 percent — has been spilled. Louisiana has more than 3,200 rigs offshore — and a thriving commercial fishing industry.