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Thanks a lot, Sen. Martinez

When the first oil rig is erected in the eastern Gulf of Mexico off Florida's coast, it should bear this plaque: "Thanks, Mel." Florida's freshman U.S. senator, Mel Martinez, cast a deciding vote in favor of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Despite his assurances, the 51-49 vote could leave the Florida coast more vulnerable than ever to drilling.

Martinez acknowledged that the arctic refuge is a stalking-horse for what the petroleum industry really wants: permission to drill in the eastern gulf. But he said he cut a deal with the Bush administration to protect Florida in exchange for his arctic vote. "Through my negotiations with the administration, I have been able to better secure the position of Florida's pristine beaches for years to come," he said in a press release.

Cast in the best light, Martinez sold out Alaska's natural heritage to save ours. But the details of the deal reveal it accomplishes nothing and may actually weaken the effort to protect Florida's coast. Some deal.

Martinez says he persuaded President Bush to promise to extend a moratorium on drilling near Florida beaches until 2012. Such a claim is subterfuge. The moratorium was adopted by President Clinton in 1998 and already had a 2012 expiration date, which Bush accepted soon after he took office in 2001.

Martinez also said he received a letter from Interior Secretary Gale Norton, that great proponent of the extractive value of public land, saying that as the department prepares its next five-year drilling plan, "we will exclude from the very beginning any area of the eastern gulf within 100 miles of the state of Florida."

The problem is, the only leases granted in the eastern gulf so far are more than 200 miles from Tampa Bay. So Norton's 100-mile exclusion is actually a setback for this part of the state. Florida's senior senator, Bill Nelson, had already won a concession from Norton in 2001 that put most of a 3-million-acre area in the eastern gulf, called Tract 181, off limits through 2007. If anything, Martinez's "deal" weakens that agreement.

Martinez's office tried to clarify the letter by saying Norton was referring to a narrow portion of Tract 181 that stretches north to within sight of Panhandle beaches. But that area has been off limits for years, so the concession is nothing new.

It looks as though Martinez claimed credit for existing limits on gulf drilling and probably weakened some of those. If that is his idea of how to "secure the position of Florida's pristine beaches," then marshmallow is the new steel.

Although arctic drilling faces a few more hurdles before it becomes law, it is likely to happen in an administration that embraces consumption and rejects conservation. And if Florida has to rely on Martinez to protect its beaches, one day we could be trading our occasional red tides for black ones.

[Last modified March 18, 2005, 00:42:17]