Legal action set to stop Everglades oil drilling
Broward County’s chief attorney said Tuesday the county will take legal action to halt a plan to drill for oil in the Everglades, as two members of Congress issued statements denouncing the project.
Broward County Attorney Andrew Meyers told the County Commission his office would work with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on the next legal steps against the drilling plan, which has generated strong opposition as a threat to South Florida’s famous wetlands.
Kanter Real Estate LLC, which owns 20,000 acres in the Everglades, won a key legal fight last week when a state appeals court ordered the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to issue the company a drilling permit for a site west of Miramar. As news spread of the company’s victory, the plan has been denounced by environmentalists and local, state and federal officials.
“There is no place for oil drills in the Everglades,” Rep. Alcee Hastings, DWest Delray, said in a statement issued Tuesday. “Drilling in the River of Grass is a huge setback for Everglades restoration, and an oil spill there would not only devastate this national treasure, but also the surrounding communities. This should be immediately appealed and overturned.”
Meyers said the next legal step has not yet been determined. Options include requests for additional review by the appeals court or an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court, he said.
If the company wins in court again, the county could still fight the project when the company applies for various permits and licenses. For example, the company would need the county to issue a land-use change for the site, which is currently classified as conservation land.
Meyers cautioned commissioners against saying anything about the permits.
“This matter could very well come before the county, including this board, for certain decisions,” he said. “It might involve land use, it might involve zoning, it may involve other permits. And for reasons we could discuss individually, it’s advantageous to the county to try to limit our comments on that at this point.”
No one from Kanter spoke at the meeting. John Kanter, the company’s president, declined comment by email.
The oil drilling item had been placed on the County Commission agenda by Commissioner Beam Furr. After the Tuesday meeting, he said he was satisfied with what the county was doing to stop a project that his constituents strongly opposed.
“They want us to fight it,” he said. “I’ve heard that loud and clear.”
The single exploratory well proposed by Kanter would go about 11,800 feet below the surface at a 5-acre site about 5 miles west of U.S. 27 and 10 miles south of Alligator Alley. A company oil expert has testified in court that there was a 23 percent chance of finding oil, considered high by industry standards, and if oil were found, it could be possible to extract 180,000 to 10 million barrels.
Although the Florida Department of Environmental Protection refused to issue a permit, an appeals court ordered the department to do so. The court said the department abused its discretion in ignoring a lower court judge’s finding that the land was degraded and isolated. And the court said the department should not have issued what amounted to a blanket ban on drilling in the Everglades.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, said the appeals court was wrong to overturn a decision by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and that the fight was not over.
“The decision to override the Department of Environmental Protection’s expert decision-making and allow an oil well to be drilled in the fragile Everglades ecosystem is wrongheaded and alarming,” she said. “… I will continue to work with officials at the federal, state, and local levels to do what we can to stop oil drills from touching this critical conservation area in Broward County. This fight is not over.”