Bill would ban coastal oil drilling for good
 
 
(Note: Why continue the march toward no resource use in America? Is this treason? If not, what is it? Resources are being used by exploitation of third-world countries and their cheap and inexhaustible workers, while those owning those operations make more profit. Is Profit the false idol upon whose altar American Sovereignty is sacrificed? Americans who cherish property rights and resource providing in our own country must awaken and get involved -- this has nothing to do with "the environment" and Everything to do with our freedom. America's ability to provide resources for our own use is being stolen by such actions.)
 
 
July 14, 2005
 

By Paige St. John The News-Press Tallahassee Bureau
 
 
To submit a Letter to the Editor: mailbag@news-press.com
 

Tallahassee, Florida - Oil and gas exploration and drilling off the coast of Florida would be permanently banned under legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris.
 
The Republican lawmaker has 18 other Florida co-sponsors to the bill she introduced, including Reps. Tom Feeney, Jeff Miller and Connie Mack IV.
 
It would not only stop current plans to allow exploration in the politically sensitive Gulf, but would [also] make waters off Florida's eastern coast off-limits.
 
Without action, the current moratorium on new drilling leases ends in 2012.
 
"This legislation will make sure that the Florida coastline is protected from the incursions of oil companies and other pro-drilling interests," Harris said Wednesday in a written statement. "The best way to protect these precious areas is to ensure that the ban on drilling is extended permanently."
 
Florida's two U.S. senators, Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez, last month persuaded the Senate to keep the moratorium in the chamber's energy bill, but their amendment to block a federal inventory of Florida's offshore oil and gas reserves failed.
 
That battle is still alive this week, because the House version allows no inventories.
 
Nelson is gathering petition signatures to make sure representatives support his fight.
 
Nelson's office welcomed Harris' bill as signaling the Florida delegations' unified opposition against drilling, but criticized it for failing to accomplish more than what the moratorium already gives.
 
Harris is vying for Nelson's Senate seat, and offshore drilling promises to be a campaign target.
 
She already has taken some flak. The League of Conservation Voters [LCV] last month accused Harris of a "flip-flop" for supporting the House energy bill because, Democrats claim, it limits states' ability to stop federal approval of offshore facilities.
 
The political group -- which made contestable claims about President Bush's off-shore drilling record during his re-election campaign -- wasn't ready Wednesday to concede agreement with Harris.
 
"Banning future drilling is certainly important, but we don't think you can look at the bill in a vacuum," said LCV Legislative Director Tiernan Sittenfeld. "Katherine Harris has one of the worst environmental records on the Hill ..." Harris' staff said her bill would not affect current leases, of which there are currently 232 in the eastern Gulf.
 
The U.S. Department of Interior four years ago auctioned leases in Area 181, a 1.5 million acre tract 100 miles south of Pensacola.
 
Fourteen wells have been drilled there since 2003, and the Interior Department has 26 more exploration plans on file.
 
"The gravest threat remaining is in Tract 181," said Nelson's deputy chief of staff, Dan McLaughlin. "We're confident that for the next six years the eastern Gulf will be protected, but Tract 181, it is still up for grabs."
 

Copyright 2005, The News-Press.