Scott must join fight to stop drilling

The timing was ironic this month when Florida legislators approved a plan to distribute $300 million to eight Panhandle counties as compensation for damages from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Legislators acted just a week after President Trump issued an executive order that could open up more waters off U.S. coasts, including Florida’s, to drilling for oil and natural gas.

Florida’s senior U.S. senator, Democrat Bill Nelson, vowed to fight the order. This was commendable, but hardly surprising. Nelson has long led the charge against any drilling near Florida’s coast. Given the threat offshore oil spills pose to the state’s environment and tourism-based economy, it’s a worthy crusade.

Now, another Florida politician needs to join his fight: Gov. Rick Scott.

As a strong supporter and personal friend of the president, Scott would have far more influence on the issue.

Trump’s order authorized his secretary of the interior, Ryan Zinke, to reconsider the Obama administration’s five-year oil and gas leasing plan that took effect this year. The plan prohibits new drilling in the eastern gulf or off the Atlantic Coast.

Remember, a bipartisan compromise authored in 2006 by Nelson and Florida’s other U.S. senator at the time, Republican Mel Martinez, opened up millions more acres in the gulf to oil and gas rigs. The compromise acknowledged the need to tap more U.S. energy reserves to advance our nation’s energy independence.

In the gulf, the deal barred drilling any closer than 125 miles from Florida. The moratorium, set to last through 2022, also reserves a buffer zone for military training and weapons testing. The Pentagon says the moratorium is “essential for developing and sustaining our nation’s future combat capabilities.”

Yet in the wake of the executive order, the oil industry is already eyeing the eastern gulf, even though a White House memo indicated the Interior Department would look at other areas first.

The eastern gulf is close to existing production facilities, and opening it could most quickly create thousands of jobs and provide billions of dollars in government revenue, said Jack Gerard, the president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute.

But economic gains could be wiped out by another disaster like Deepwater Horizon, which dumped 200 million gallons of crude into the gulf before it was finally capped three months later.

Nelson and other Democratic senators have introduced legislation that would bar the Interior Department from opening any new areas to offshore drilling through 2022. And Nelson, along with U.S. House members from Florida in both parties, have written letters to Zinke urging him not to allow any drilling in the eastern gulf.

But earlier this month, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio threw a wrench into the debate.

Like Nelson, the Miami Republican proposes extending the ban through 2022. However, Rubio also proposes that Florida receive a share of revenue generated by drilling in the gulf.

“This would give Florida a new source of funding and recognize that as long as hour shores shoulder some of the risk, it’s only fair that Floridians share in some of the benefit,” Rubio wrote in the Pensacola News Journal.

Rubio’s proposal lacks specifics, but Nelson was rightly concerned. For if Florida wants a cut of the pot, it might be expected to ante up.

“You get the camel’s nose under the tent,” Nelson told the Tampa Bay Times, “and suddenly the camel is in the tent. You throw the juicy tidbit out there and suddenly Florida wants drilling in the Gulf.”

It has been nearly seven years since the Deepwater Horizon explosion 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana claimed the lives of 11 men and ruined an entire tourism season for the Gulf states. The House members wrote: “This tragedy was a painful reminder that Florida’s beaches and economy are at risk even when oil rigs are hundreds of miles away from its shores.”

But bipartisan lobbying of the interior secretary by Florida’s members of Congress might not match a personal appeal to the president from Florida’s governor.

Scott, who is expected to challenge Nelson for his Senate seat next year, could gain new credibility for the campaign trail by securing a commitment from the Trump administration not to drill in the eastern gulf. And he could prove his recent vow to aggressively protect our environment wasn’t just empty talk.

Since Trump’s election, Scott says Florida has a federal partner focused on working with us. Here’s an opportunity for the governor to put that statement to the test.

Scott, who is expected to challenge Nelson for his Senate seat next year, could gain new credibility for the campaign trail by securing a commitment from the Trump administration not to drill in the eastern gulf.