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Gulf oil drilling debated in a city far from shore

More than 100 people argue the pros and cons in Tallahassee, on a workday, at the only Florida meeting planned.

By CRAIG PITTMAN
Published April 7, 2006

	[AP photo]
	Alvin Jones of the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service listens to testimony on gulf oil drilling at a meeting Thursday in Tallahassee. It's Your Times: What are your feelings about drilling in the Gulf?

TALLAHASSEE - More than 100 people showed up Thursday for a hearing on a federal plan to open 2-million acres of the Gulf of Mexico 100 miles south of Pensacola to oil and gas drilling.

There were clam farmers from Cedar Key, environmental activists from Tampa Bay and the western Panhandle and a raft of elected officials or their aides speaking out against the proposal. They were countered by petroleum representatives defending the proposal as good for the economy.

The federal agency in charge of the leasing plan scheduled one public hearing in Florida on the proposal - for the middle of a workday, in a city an hour's drive from the coast.

Neither Gov. Jeb Bush nor his staff attended the hearing. Bush sent a letter that appeared to call the plan "acceptable."

But Bush later told reporters he is "prepared to go do battle for the protection of our shoreline," and bemoaned the failure of his own proposal to keep all drilling at least 150 miles offshore.

Among the elected officials who sent letters opposing the plan: Republican Sen. Mel Martinez; Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson; Rep. Jim Davis, a Democratic candidate for governor; and Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist, a GOP gubernatorial candidate.

A trio of state representatives, led by Broward County Rep. Ken Gottlieb, delivered a letter co-signed by 79 members of the state House and Senate opposing it because "Florida's coastline is the backbone of our $57-billion tourism industry as well as our most precious environmental resource."

Although more than 4,000 offshore rigs dot the western and central gulf, the eastern gulf has remained free of drilling for decades. And it is far less polluted than the rest of the gulf, federal studies show.

But the rising price of petroleum products has prompted political pressure to allow drilling in areas once deemed off-limits, including the eastern gulf.

"Plain and simple, we need more natural gas in this country," said Josh Young of the American Chemical Council.

David Mica of the Florida Petroleum Council pointed out that new drilling leases would mean millions of dollars flowing to Florida for buying environmentally sensitive land.

Several speakers touted the industry's safety record, despite more than 1-million gallons of oil spilled during hurricanes Katrina and Rita from onshore facilities.

"Anything we do in life is a gamble," said Ed Dees, a retired union official from Hillsborough County who supports the plan to protect jobs in the chemical and phosphate industries.

Allowing drilling for oil and gas 100 miles offshore won't hurt Florida tourism as much as rising gas prices have, several speakers said.

"Rigs kept 100 miles off the coastline will have absolutely no impact on tourism," said Barney Bishop, president of the business group Associated Industries of Florida.

But the Florida Association of Conventions and Visitors Bureaus disagrees.

And while several opponents said they feared a catastrophic oil spill would ruin the state's economy, some environmental advocates warned about the toxic pollution dumped in the gulf by the rigs' daily operations.

"Offshore drilling, whether for gas or oil, is a dirty, polluting business," said Enid Sisskin of Gulf Coast Environmental Defense.

Despite its location and timing, Thursday's hearing drew a bigger crowd than more than a dozen hearings over the past two months in Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and Alaska, federal officials said.

--Times staff writers Steve Bousquet and Letitia Stein contributed to this report.

[Last modified April 7, 2006, 01:31:16]