Expansion of offshore drilling must not happen
No, no, a thousand times no.
In no way should offshore oil and gas drilling be allowed off the coast of Florida.
Or off the coast of the Carolinas, California, New Jersey — or any other coastal state, for that matter.
But that is what the Trump administration proposes to do, despite the states’ widespread opposition. Reversing longstanding policies upheld by both Republican and Democratic presidents, the Interior Department unveiled a plan last week to open vast areas of federal waters to drilling,
Florida officials, quite correctly, immediately criticized the move in a bipartisan chorus, Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Republican Sen. Mario Rubio no less incensed than Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson. If Scott is ever to make use of his much-vaunted friendship with President Donald Trump, this is the time.
After the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil-rig explosion and oil spill, which killed 11 workers and spouted 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to Florida, destroying tourism on the Panhandle beaches for at least a year, this question should have been settled for good. Not for the Trump administration. “American energy dominance” is the goal, said Interior Secretary Ray Zinke.
What is he talking about? With the spread of fracking for shale oil, America for some years has been importing far less oil. The tax bill has already given the White House the green light to open the environmentally sensitive Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, no matter the likely harm to the Alaskan wilderness. The administration has reversed Obama-era safety regulations for fracking. It is even drafting language to soften key parts of a safety rule for offshore drilling operations — like the Deepwater Horizon.
Just how much toadying to the fossil-fuel companies is required as payback for their campaign contributions? (Oil and gas interests spent almost $105 million on politics in 2016, 88 percent going to Republicans, according to OpenSecrets.org. That was 24 percent more than they spent in 2012 and 61 percent more than in 2008. Thank you again, Citizens United.)
Since 2006, the eastern Gulf of Mexico has been a no-drill zone, thanks to a compromise put together by Nelson and then-Sen. Mel Martinez, a Republican. Their deal conceded opening millions more of acres in the Gulf to oil and gas exploitation — but barred drilling any closer than 125 miles off Florida’s coastline.
That agreement is to last through 2022. The Trump plan is to sell drilling leases in the eastern Gulf in 2023 and 2024. This makes it vital for Congress to pass an extension of the moratorium until at least 2027, a proposal from Nelson and Rubio.
More immediately vital is for Florida politicians of every stripe to express firm opposition to extending drilling, which, as Nelson put it, “defies all common sense.”
So far, so good. Everyone from U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former Democratic Party chair, to Rep. Matt Gaetz, whose Panhandle district went for the president by the largest margin in the state, are voicing alarm. Gaetz, noting that the 125mile drill-free zone allows the military to do testing over the Gulf that can’t be done elsewhere, blasted the proposal as “catastrophic to our military and to our local tourist economy.”
The biggest test, though, is for Scott, who plays up his kinship with Trump — a fellow businessman who turned to politics after making a fortune — and is expected to challenge Nelson this year for U.S. Senate. Although he supported oil drilling (“with the right precautions”) during his first campaign for governor, in 2010, Scott now says his “top priority is to ensure that Florida’s natural resources are protected.”
Scott said last week he has asked to meet with Zinke directly “to discuss the concerns I have with this plan and the crucial need to remove Florida from consideration.” Let’s hope that kind of pressure from an ally of the president makes a difference.
It’s ridiculous that we have to fight this battle just eight years after the Gulf had to be cleaned up from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
This administration must hear from every corner that this kind of pandering to industry, at the expense of our state’s economy and environment and our citizens’ health, will not be tolerated.
It’s ridiculous that this battle must be fought just eight years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster.