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With gulf safe, drilling gets Martinez vote

The senator says he fought hard to win an assurance that a moratorium on drilling off Florida's Gulf Coast would continue.

By WES ALLISON
Published March 17, 2005

WASHINGTON - As Republicans rallied support for President Bush's top energy priority, increased oil exploration in Alaska, Sen. Mel Martinez offered his vote for a price: an assurance that Florida's Gulf Coast would remain safe from oil and gas exploration at least through 2012.

The White House delivered that promise Wednesday morning, and Martinez, the Florida Republican, added his vote to the slim majority that approved oil and gas drilling in one of America's ecological treasures, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

Minutes after the 51-49 vote, Martinez announced that the Bush administration had agreed to respect the current moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida's coast until 2012.

"I wanted to make sure that my vote for ANWR would in no way weaken Florida's protection from offshore drilling, but indeed would strengthen it," Martinez said.

Opponents had warned that opening the arctic refuge to oil rigs would provide the impetus for drilling in other ecologically sensitive areas, including the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Martinez said he could not have supported drilling in Alaska without the administration's assurances to leave the gulf alone.

"I was very clear" to the White House, he said. "I was clear to my leadership, and that was in the balance as we negotiated into late last night, and early this morning."

Environmentalists, however, said it's unclear whether Martinez really secured anything new, and they questioned how Martinez could argue that drilling would be environmentally safe for Alaska, but not Florida.

Although Martinez characterized his deal as an "extension" of the moratorium, the current patchwork of protections against drilling for oil and natural gas off Florida's West Coast already extends to 2012, largely under a deal struck by President Bush and his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

But the president's term ends in 2008, and environmentalists and Florida politicians have worried the administration and drilling advocates in Congress would strip the protection when the Interior Department develops its next five-year plan for offshore oil and gas drilling, covering 2007 to 2012.

Martinez said those fears were valid, describing the negotiations as difficult. "I think that (opening the gulf for drilling) was probably the plan," he said between votes on the Senate floor. "It wasn't easy to get (the administration's assurance). We were going back and forth."

In a letter to Martinez dated Wednesday, Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton wrote that the "administration will continue to support the existing congressional moratoria and the presidential withdrawals that prohibit offshore energy development near the Florida coast through 2012."

When the Interior Department begins developing the next five-year plan, "we will exclude from the very beginning any area of the eastern gulf within 100 miles of the state of Florida," the letter says.

That leaves open the question of what plans the administration might develop for drilling in protected areas beyond the 100-mile limit. In 2001, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., helped strike a deal with Norton that made a large part of a region in the gulf, known as tract 181, off-limits to oil and gas drilling. But its eastern edge is 213 miles off Tampa Bay - well outside the 100-mile limit Norton mentions.

"It's not spelled out clearly," said Mark Ferrullo, director of the Florida Public Interest Research Group, which has advocated against gulf drilling. "Any new leasing in the eastern Gulf of Mexico is an encroachment on Florida's beaches. They keep pushing a little more east, a little more east, and that's a big concern for us."

Martinez acknowledged those areas beyond the 100-mile limit weren't explicitly included in Norton's letter, but said they were implicitly included in the deal.

"Those are the little finer points that hopefully will not be in dispute," Martinez said. "I don't think that will be an issue, I really don't."

The Senate's arctic drilling measure was included as part of the budget bill, which has not been approved by the House. Martinez said his deal with the Bush administration stands regardless of whether the House acts.

Nelson, who voted against the arctic drilling measure Wednesday, praised Martinez for securing the gulf protections. But Nelson spokesman Dan McLaughlin said "we remain highly skeptical of the administration, and in particular its plans for tract 181."

Martinez said that the Senate leadership had expressed support for a bill to keep the waters off Florida's Gulf Coast permanently off limits. But that would require support from the House, where leaders are strongly pro-drilling.

Martinez also acknowledged the next president, regardless of party, could withdraw Norton's promise. But there would be a "political process" between Florida and the presidential candidates, and "that will be the time to gain and secure additional commitments . . . to respect this moratorium," he said. "It is impossible to secure the world forever from every problem, but I think we've done pretty good today."

[Last modified March 17, 2005, 01:25:38]