Hypocrisy flows like oil

Many Congressional Republicans are one-trick ponies when it comes to energy. It’s a view summarized by their motto — “Drill, baby, drill!” — and in bills such as the Strategic Production Response Act, which would preclude President Joe Biden from releasing more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve unless he agrees to open more federal land to drilling.

But hypocrisy flowed like oil in a recent debate over that bill. A group of Florida Republicans, who regularly advocate drilling almost everywhere, demanded exceptions to preclude drilling off their state’s coast.

Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz, John Rutherford, Neal Dunn, Maria Elvira Salazar, Carlos Gimenez, Brian Mast, Bill Posey and Mario Diaz-balart introduced the Florida Shores Protection Act. Republican Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, also drilling proponents, introduced it in the Senate.

The Florida lawmakers contend that drilling should not be allowed off Florida’s shores because the state depends on tourism, and they cited the massive 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that adversely affected that tourism for several years.

That’s a pretty good argument against expanded offshore drilling. But it raises the question of why a moratorium on it should be limited to Florida, since offshore spills have fouled waters in Alaska, California, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama and many other places where clean water is fundamental to the regional economy.

Congress would be on solid ground in restricting offshore drilling, but Florida should be subject to the law to the same degree as every other state.