Some day Florida may have to compromise on drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, but until then, state leaders should keep fighting it.
A Times Editorial
Published November 17, 2005
Hurricane season may be ending but Florida's beaches are still vulnerable to a different threat. Gov. Jeb Bush and a handful of malleable representatives in Congress were ready last week to shrink the state's buffer against offshore oil rigs. They were foiled in a dramatic turnaround when protectors of the coast prevailed - at least for a while. Now that bipartisan group needs to get ready to fight off the next attempt.
Rep. Jim Davis, D-Tampa, and a coalition of House Republicans and Democrats helped defeat a budget bill that would have opened the eastern Gulf of Mexico off Florida and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to drilling. Their victory proved that Bush and Rep. Connie Mack, R-Naples, capitulated too quickly.
Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., is doing the oil industry's dirty work on offshore drilling. And he isn't likely to give up. Pombo may try to slip offshore drilling into the budget bill again, and another showdown could come as early as the end of this week. It's no time for Florida politicians to be timid.
Bush says drilling off the state's coast is inevitable and that he is just trying to cut the best deal. If that is so, why would Florida gain so little? Bush agreed to a 125-mile buffer that would have required a vote of the Legislature and renewal every 5 years. Hardly a sure thing.
Now most of the eastern gulf is under a drilling moratorium that doesn't expire until 2012. Another portion as close as 100 miles from Panhandle beaches, known as Area 181, won't be opened for lease until 2007. There is no reason, other than political will, that Congress couldn't extend those dates.
At least Mack improved on Bush's deal. Under his negotiations with Pombo, Florida would have gotten a permanent 150-mile barrier. But even that compromise would have moved oil rigs considerably closer to Florida's west coast. Active drilling leases are 285 miles off Pinellas County beaches now, and every mile counts when it comes to oil spills.
It isn't a question of whether offshore rigs would damage our beaches; it's a question of when and how badly. A federal study of just one company's drilling plans for Area 181 estimated there would be hundreds of spills that would "result in small pollution events that could temporarily affect the enjoyment or use of some beach segments in Alabama or Florida."
No beach closure is a small event in Florida. Because of prevaling gulf currents, oil spills would be carried to the Keys and beyond. "It could affect the beaches and reefs all the way up the East Coast," said Robert Weisberg, an oceanography professor at the University of South Florida.
So nothing less than the state's quality of life and economy are at stake in this game of brinkmanship. Maybe the day will come when the state has to compromise, but that day isn't here yet. Meanwhile, the quitters are making it more difficult to protect Florida's coast.
