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Gov. Bush remains steadfast in protecting gulf waters

Re: Blood is thicker than oil, editorial, Oct. 9.

Your editorial regarding the governor's position on oil drilling is misleading and inaccurate. Gov. Jeb Bush has long fought to protect Florida's coastline from the potential threat of offshore development.

Provisions within California Rep. Richard Pombo's bill currently in Congress could expand protection for waters in the Gulf of Mexico and establish new and permanent safeguards from the Florida Keys to the Georgia border. The proposal would also empower states to determine their own future - putting decisions on offshore development into the hands of our state elected officials instead of the federal government.

Current agreements and moratoriums expire in 2007 and 2012 respectively. Gov. Bush is striving to provide the state with more protection than currently exists by making permanent a ban on drilling around Florida's entire coastline and eliminating unacceptable provisions within the Pombo bill that would allow an inventory and natural gas drilling close to Florida's shores.

During his tenure, Gov. Bush has done more to eliminate the imminent threat of oil leasing than any other governor. From preventing new oil leasing within 100 miles of the coastline in 2001 to securing a historical commitment from the federal government to buy back existing drilling rights just 25 miles from Pensacola, the governor's accomplishments speak for themselves. His commitment remains steadfast.

Risk from drilling is very small

Re: Blood is thicker than oil, editorial.

With an editorial on Oct. 5 and another editorial and article in last Sunday's Perspective section, the St. Petersburg Times continues to attempt to frighten the public with the threat to our beaches and tourist-dominated economy presented by offshore oil drilling. There were petroleum product spills as a direct result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. But all of the reported spills were from flood damage to facilities on shore. There was damage to offshore facilities as reported by the article last Sunday (Hurricanes expose flaws in gulf rigs), but there were no spills from offshore platforms as the Oct. 5 editorial implied. In the context of the ongoing maneuvering in Congress over drilling off Florida's Gulf Coast this is a fact worth repeating.

As our economy staggers under the burden of rising fuel costs and we remain hostage to foreign imports, huge domestic reserves from Alaska to the Gulf Coast go untapped due to the selfishness of environmental extremists and other special interests like the tourist industry.

Can anyone claim with absolute certainty that there will never be a spill from an offshore oil platform that might contaminate a pristine Florida beach? Of course not. Every human activity involves some degree of risk. But recent history argues that the risk to Florida beaches from offshore oil production is very small. In light of our current energy needs, that risk by any reasonable standard is acceptable.

Governor's shift not surprising

Re: Blood is thicker than oil.

Does it really surprise anyone that Gov. Jeb Bush would betray the citizens of Florida? After all, he has on numerous occasions shown contempt for the will of the people he was hired to serve. Why stop now when he can stake out a larger political claim?

Apparently what Gov. Bush doesn't realize, what most national politicians don't realize, is this: Oil drilling in the eastern gulf comes closer than anything to being a single unifying, galvanizing issue for Florida voters. And given that Florida has been the presidential swing state for the last two elections, here is a prediction: Whoever supports oil legislation that might compromise Florida waters, in whatever form it is created, will lose the White House in 2008.

The sad irony of course is that Florida voters have only themselves to blame. We are directly responsible for putting two Bushes in office, two people whose family ties to oil run so deep that they routinely abandon conservative principles in favor of liberal energy policy. Fools are we to think a zebra can change its stripes.

Subsidies are essential

The very interesting article Planes, trains and stagecoaches (Oct. 9) confirms my own views acquired during years of reading and writing about railroad subjects. I see the same thing happening to our airlines that happened with passenger railroads and have reached the doleful conclusion that no public passenger-carrying system can exist without government subsidy. The Europeans found this out years ago, and their excellent railroads are now supported by taxes as a public service. The current push to make Amtrak profitable is ridiculous, as is the fiction that airlines, trucks and buses are unsubsidized.

I find it unjust that the railroads must supply their own right of way, and then pay taxes on it, while their competitors ride on the interstates.

We could certainly use a healthy passenger railroad system, if only to reduce traffic on the highways. One way to encourage the railroads to share their tracks with Amtrak might be to subsidize the cost of maintaining the rails, and perhaps pay the equivalent in taxes to the municipalities where the passenger trains run.

The post-traumatic stress factor

Re: Securing the home front, Oct. 9.

Congratulations to the Times and reporter Letitia Stein for covering a problem of increasing concern. Unfortunately, no mention was made of the condition that makes a return to "normal" life so difficult: post-traumatic stress disorder.

As a psychologist with 12 years experience in the Veteran's Administration and another 20 in an academic setting studying its effects, I see PTSD as a problem of serious dimensions. Army statistics estimate that at least 25 percent of men and women returning from combat will experience some degree of adjustment difficulties after being discharged. The problems described in this article merely scratch the surface. In some cases, for example, PTSD has been cited as the cause for such extreme behaviors as suicide and homicide. The problem is compounded by the fact that services for veterans have been serously curtailed, especially for those of a psychiatric nature.

Look at other devastated areas

Re: Bumping and grinding its way back, Oct. 9.

I was already sick of hearing about New Orleans, as if it were the only place devastated by Katrina! Now we have three pages of this! Another reason not to rebuild it "just the way it was"!

Could your paper spare a little bit of space on Mississippi or Alabama or anywhere else? Perhaps you might let everyone know where all the monies being collected throughout the United States are going.

The opening of strip joints in New Orleans does not deserve the coverage you gave it. Maybe you should take your photographers and reporters out of New Orleans and put them in some other devastated area.

[Last modified October 15, 2005, 01:27:02]