Update on Oil Drilling off Florida Coast

I hope a compromise can be achieved which will protect our Gulf Coast Beaches and Florida Bay from the ill effects of oil and gas drilling. Fortunately, a majority of our congressional members and our 2 Florida Senators are leading the fight to protect our Coastline....which is the heart of Florida's tourism and sports fishing industry. There's a bunch of short sided, narrow minded folk out there that don't give a damn about our State and wouldn't care less if our pristine beaches, like the one posted above (Cape Sable in Florida Bay) is covered in tar. They only care about filling up their friggin SUV's. If these yahoo's want drilling on their coasts, fine, just keep it out of our Neighborhood. Floridians don't want it near our coast. I've quoted the most recent article from the St. Pete Times below with an update on what's going on:

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From St. Pete Times:

Leaders ask for time on oil bill

Florida representatives are divided over the measure that would ban drilling near the coast. But a delay is unlikely.

By WES ALLISON, Times Staff Writer
Published June 27, 2006

WASHINGTON — With time running out and little consensus on how to handle a bill to allow drilling 100 miles off their beaches, Florida’s members of Congress took the only route they could agree on: They sought a delay.

But House Republican leaders said late Tuesday that a delay was unlikely, and a vote was still scheduled for Thursday. And as impatience grows with Florida’s intransigence on off-shore oil and gas exploration, attorneys for the House Resources Committee drafted an amendment to cut Florida from the bill altogether.

That would leave the state without the bill’s protections against near-shore drilling and force its congressional delegation to fight drilling forces in Congress alone, at a time when the political pressure to drill has never been stronger.

Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush flew to Washington late Tuesday to urge Florida’s congressional delegation to vote for the bill, which would ban drilling up to 50 miles off the nation’s shores, unless states opted to allow it closer. States also could ask the Interior Department to ban drilling up to 100 miles offshore as well.

“The choice is pretty clear: Either you engage and make a difference in terms of making sure Florida’s interests are protected, or I guess you go down in defeat and claim that you were righteous,” Bush said before leaving Tallahassee.

Many Florida lawmakers weren’t prepared to yield, however. At a sometimes testy meeting lasting nearly two hours Tuesday, 17 of Florida’s 25 U.S. House members clashed on whether to accept the deal or keep fighting for more provisions.

Though a half-dozen members publicly favor the compromise, on grounds it’s the best deal Florida can hope for, three main concerns emerged among the others:

- That 100 miles isn’t enough, even though most of the delegation backed a 1997 bill that would have created a 100-mile buffer.
- That the Legislature must act in order to prevent drilling between 50 and 100 miles off shore, and that the Legislature therefore could vote to allow drilling within 50 miles.
- That drilling isn’t specifically prohibited within the Defense Department’s Gulf of Mexico training zone, which includes everything east of a line 234 miles off Tampa Bay. Instead, the defense secretary would have the authority to nix any drilling projects in the area.
The members agreed to ask Florida’s senators to help them produce a more generous compromise that might pass both chambers of Congress.

“If we can find something that will get smooth sailing over in the Senate, that would be worth something,’’ Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, told his colleagues. Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow, who struck the deal with House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., and other pro-drilling lawmakers, urged his colleagues to support the bill, but said he would ask the Republican leadership to delay the vote until after the July 4 recess.
But a spokesman for House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the bill is still on track.
The bill, called the Deep Oceans Energy Resources Act, easily passed the Resources Committee last week, and opponents and advocates alike say it is likely to pass the full House as well, with or without the Floridians.

'’We all have to be honest amongst ourselves, that we are past the point of getting what we want and are getting what we can,” said Rep. Jeff Miller, a Panhandle Republican who supports the act.

Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Mel Martinez have introduced a Senate bill to prevent drilling at least 234 miles off Florida’s West Coast and 150 miles off the state’s southern and eastern coasts.

But it has gained no traction, and Martinez and Nelson are trying to reach a compromise with Senate leaders that would keep drilling at least 150 miles offshore.

Martinez said Tuesday he thinks “it’s a great idea” for them to work with their House colleagues.

Time is short. House leaders say they are counting on at least six to eight Floridians to back the bill Thursday, but they want as many as possible to show the Senate that drilling 100 miles offshore is politically acceptable, even if Martinez and Nelson object.
Nelson has pledged to filibuster the Pombo-Putnam deal if it reaches the Senate.
Meanwhile, at the request of several members impatient with Florida, the Resources Committee staff has drafted a one-paragraph measure to exempt Florida from the Pombo bill.
That would leave Florida without key protections once a presidential moratorium on drilling within 100 miles of the Panhandle expires next year. It also would open the eastern gulf to congressional attempts to allow drilling closer than 100 miles.

Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for the Resources Committee, said there are no plans now to file that amendment, but that could change.

“This train is leaving the station with or without Florida, and as it’s written right now it is loaded with protections,” Kennedy said.

Pombo “wants as much support from the Florida delegation as possible, but that door closes when the only intent is political posturing.”

Staff Writers Alex Leary and Anita Kumar contributed to this report.[Last modified June 27, 2006, 22:34:14]