Is offshore oil drilling in Gulf off Florida being horse-traded in final hours?
Sen. Dan Gelber, a candidate for the U.S. Senate and a Democrat, warns of a rumor to that regard. From his Twitter account earlier today:
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The Political Whore
Florida’s leading source for inside information on politics and media
Florida Senate likely last hope to block Gulf coast offshore drilling
Here’s a good review from the Tallahassee Democrat of just how the petroleum industry and its lobbyists sprung their 11th-hour surprise to end a 20-year ban on offshore oil drilling on the House of Representatives.
From the Democrat’s Florida Capital News website:
With a little less than an hour’s discussion, and a quick, mostly party-line vote, every conservationist’s worst nightmare was headed for the House floor. The House gave preliminary approval on Friday.
“This is like a Carl Hiaasen novel,” laments Janet Bowman, a lobbyist for the Nature Conservancy.
But unlike the colorful characters who scheme to sell out Florida’s natural wonders in Hiaasen’s works of fiction, the supporters are very real. Their ranks also include some respected names, including Martha Barnett, a former president of the American Bar Association.
Former House Speaker John Thrasher, a lobbyist who is also pushing the measure, smiles broadly and praises Cannon’s master stroke.
“He’s a rising star,” Thrasher said. “We needed to look at this, not just pull it out and have everyone just say no. It’s been amazing to see the pent-up energy for this.”
Big Oil pitches billions for Florida if we’ll just open our shores to drilling
Just got off a conference call arranged by a Tallahassee PR agency along with Associated Industries of Florida (a pro-business insurance interest) that was pitching heavily for a surprise move in the Florida Legislature to end a 20-year ban on offshore drilling and oil/gas exploration.
HB 1219’s explosive provisions came up all of a sudden, in the last two weeks of the session, clearly a strategic move to limit public discussion on the controversial issue. 20 years of protecting Florida’s beaches from oil spills could be gone in a matter of days in the blitzkrieg, but the oil production advocates on the phoner said that’s not important. What does matter is that Florida is losing out on millions in revenues from state and federal oil leases that could materialize. (And more importantly, lawmakers might miss out on the more than $1.1 million in campaign contributions that petroleum interests have made in the past 15 years.)
It’s about “hard cold cash” for the state “as opposed to political rhetoric,” said Barney Bishop, the head of AIF, who wouldn’t reveal the oil production members of his association who are pushing the legislation. “We’ve never identified who our members are. Our members just brought this idea to us. It was a unique idea. The fact that it was a 20 year [prohibition], that doesn’t mean a doggone thing. That’s really a non-issue.”
Orlando economist Hank Fishkind put the state’s proceeds at more than $1.5 billion a year for 20 years, or $31 billion.
Yes, they flat out dangled lots of cash. Want to fix your budget crisis, Florida? Just drill, baby drill. Pretty odious stuff, especially the shadowy timing of this and the use of Dean Cannon, the next speaker of the House, to introduce the bill and push it through a House council vote along party lines, 17-6. The change in state policy would allow the Cabinet to consider proposals for oil drilling from zero to 10.35 miles offshore. The federal moratorium from 10.35 miles to 200 miles out likely would fall, too, if the state lifts its ban.
Obama sets aside Bush’s offshore drilling plan
The Obama administration on Tuesday overturned another Bush-era energy policy, announcing it was setting aside a draft plan to allow drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
“To establish an orderly process that allows us to make wise decisions based on sound information, we need to set aside” the plan “and create our own timeline,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced in a statement.
Alleging that the Bush administration “had torpedoed” offshore renewable energy, Salazar said he was extending the public comment period by 6 months and ordering his experts to compile a report on the Outer Continental Shelf’s energy potential – not just oil and natural gas, but also renewables like wind and wave energy.
