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Fla. senators' oil bill will be a tough sale on Capitol Hill

By WES ALLISON
Published February 2, 2006

WASHINGTON - Florida's U.S. senators launched their plan to stop oil and gas exploration in the eastern Gulf of Mexico Wednesday with an aggressive sales campaign, but some House members grumbled the bipartisan deal would be a tough sell.

At a morning coffee, Sen. Bill Nelson announced he and Sen. Mel Martinez would file a ground-breaking bill to keep oil and gas drilling 260 miles off Tampa Bay, and 150 miles off the Panhandle.

"If we do nothing, we have to continue this knife fight every day, and today they can come in . . . and try to drill 100 miles off Florida," Nelson argued at appearances throughout the day. "We are launching a pre-emptive strike."

"We decided to be proactive . . . and try to make this be the deal," Martinez said.

Under the terms of the bill, drilling would be prohibited east of the military's training line, some 260 miles off the west-central Florida coast, and 150 miles off the Panhandle. In return, oil companies would get access to the south-central section of Lease-Sale Area 181, a 6-million acre tract that experts believe is rich in gas and oil reserves.

While several environmental groups and Florida politicians hailed the deal as a landmark, getting it passed is likely to take all of the smiling senators' salesmanship. Martinez acknowledged that Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who chairs the Senate energy committee, is not on board yet. Nor is House Resources Chairman Richard Pombo.

And while Florida members of the U.S. House were generally supportive after seeing the bill Wednesday, some also questioned the senators' timing. Republican Reps. Jeff Miller, Mario Diaz-Balart and Katherine Harris said the prospects for success would have been stronger three months ago, when House Republicans were negotiating a deal with Pombo to keep drilling 120 to 150 miles offshore.

That deal was scrapped, in part because several Florida lawmakers objected, including the senators. But it had the backing of Pombo, R-Calif., and the House leadership and was part of a massive, must-pass spending bill that came for a vote in November.

It also had support from lawmakers in other coastal states, who could have limited drilling if they wanted as well. Pro-drilling states like Louisiana liked it because they would have gotten a larger share of the royalties that energy companies pay the government to drill.

Martinez and Nelson's bill offers few such sweeteners.

"The timing was better at the end of the last session," said Miller, who represents the Panhandle. "But a stand-alone bill is better than nothing. It will be more difficult to pass, but not impossible."

Rep. Mark Foley, R-Palm Beach County, said he opposes the Martinez-Nelson bill, just as he opposed last year's Pombo deal, because he doesn't think the state should negotiate. And Harris, R-Longboat Key, who is running against Nelson, said she was sorry the senators didn't try to win a deal last year, and she doubts this bill will pass.

"We're disappointed," Harris said. "We had worked very hard in the House. We had the deal lined up."

Harris had publicly opposed any deal in the House last year. Wednesday, however, she said she would ultimately have accepted the best deal available.

Martinez and Nelson said their bill is far stronger than the deal negotiated in the House last fall, and environmentalists and most House members contacted Wednesday agreed.

Rep. Jim Davis, D-Tampa, and Miller said they will talk with their colleagues about crafting a bipartisan companion bill in the House. And Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who had helped negotiate the Pombo deal, said he was encouraged, though he declined to elaborate.

But even if most of the Florida delegation united behind it, the bill faces a tough go.

Martinez said he is still trying to convince the White House, which favors drilling off Florida. The oil and gas industry was cool to it, too. The National Association of Manufacturers issued a statement blasting the bill, and Bob Slaughter, president of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, said too many energy reserves are off-limits already, though he stopped short of opposing it.

"It's a shame that the price of getting needed production from the area in Lease-Sale 181 may need to put equally promising areas off Florida off-limits."

Meanwhile, Domenici is planning to introduce his own bill this year to open Lease-Sale Area 181. Although most of the area is off-limits to drilling now, the prohibitions disappear next year, and the federal government could open the region up to drilling.

"There is a reality out there that things are moving toward drilling," Martinez said, and his and Nelson's bill "does reflect the challenge of changing political reality."

Martinez, who serves with Domenici on the energy committee, said he has made the case for the bill to him, and will continue to press him and other committee members. He said Domenici is "digesting it. Or maybe it's giving him indigestion."

Times staff writer Anita Kumar contributed to this report.

[Last modified February 2, 2006, 02:15:36]