I am submitting this OP-Ed to the newspapers tomorrow:
Let's see who votes for oil and who votes for Florida
These are fascinating times for us in Florida. We are on the brink of decisions that could forever endanger our clean waters our clean beaches and our valuable tourism based economy.
It is clear members of the Florida Senate and House of Representatives are determined to push this oil legislation through this session or later in the year. The Senate just last week filed Senate Bill 2622, a companion bill to the House version that would allow for drilling from 3 to 10 miles offshore. Florida's House General Policy Council just voted in favor of asking the US Congress to lift the ban on drilling in Federal Waters from 3 to 125 miles offshore. Officials kept saying there would be no movement on the oil initiative this year in order to lull us into a trance. That is why I chose Feb 13 to organize Hands Across The Sand to bring Floridians full attention to this issue.
Interesting how this General Policy Council that recently voted on House Memorial Bill 563 was made up of 95% House Representatives who come from the spine of the state. You would think lawmakers would have the backbone to create a more balanced representation of coastal interests as well. If they are so confident Floridians are whooping it up about oil why would they do that? Talk about stacking the deck, they stacked the deck to open up the door to an industry that could easily, with one spill devastate an entire coastal economy in an instant. The word memorial is fitting because this could truly be a "Memorial" signaling a death knell to our beautiful, pristine coastline and waters.
I hear promises from politicians, I hear promises from oil lobbyists, I hear promises from the Oil Industry. I hear promises from the Ghost of Mr. Chicken but I don't believe any of them. Where were your promises when this oil bill was first written in the House of Representatives and in the recently signed Memorial Bill? All one needs to do is read the not so fine print to see what the boys in El Rancho Petro in Texas want. They are asking for the world; unfettered drilling from 3 miles out to 125 miles.
And I just love the new fangled, slickety smooth TV Ad campaign the energy companies are waging on the American Psyche. Oh boy, you would think they could be the saviors of the American Dream and the givers of jobs, jobs, jobs! And new, safer, "greener" drilling techniques! It's almost comical how the oil and gas industry is doing nothing more than employing a capable bunch of marketing minds to recreate this new "green" image. Not unlike "clean coal", the ultimate oxymoron. Please, don't insult the intelligence of Floridians.
The oil industry is a dirty business, period. All one needs to do is cruise the coastline from Gulf Shores Alabama to the border of Mexico to see how the oil and gas industry conducts it's business in our western gulf of Mexico and the mess is not only in the water. It's no secret there are parts of Texas and Louisiana that are industrial wastelands. There are nearly 4000 oil rigs off the coasts of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama; of those 4000, 1000 are rusting, useless hulks. They are only using a fraction of the 100,000 oil and gas leases they have and they want more?
Leaks? Oh, they always say there are rarely leaks. Tell that to Grandpa. All one needs to do is a little research to find the level of oil that goes into our Gulf regularly and it is a fact that unintended spills happen often. Listen up Oil and Gas industry: clean up the existing cesspool you created west of Florida's border and then you might be qualified to talk all you want to about your "new, cleaner, greener" ways.
Nicol?s Guti?rrez, Jr, Bush appointee, Member, Board of Directors of the National Association of Cuban Mineral and Petroleum Rights Holders and 9 time Director of the National Association of Sugar Mill owners of Cuba mentioned in a recent op-ed: "For those who say offshore drilling will hurt our tourism industry, I urge you to learn more about the cleaner, safer and less intrusive technologies that can find and extract oil and natural gas without hurting our pristine coastline." Here's a guy who looks out for the oil and sugar industry talking about cleaner and safer technologies. Gimme a break. Your Texas buddies are already pissing in their chili over in Texas, (not my original thought) how can we expect them to take a lot of consideration with our Pristine coastline?
So, The Century Commission drilling report just concluded that all the oil in Florida's waters would power America for only one week. Based on these findings this oil drilling initiative should be dropped now, right? No, not a chance. Our leaders are choosing to ignore this fact. It is clear those Legislators flush with oil Lobby contributions are determined to push this through now no matter what. I guess they are just doing what they got paid to do. Should we be surprised?
Even after thousands of Floridians on 80 beaches statewide joined hands on February 13 against oil, I am afraid our leaders are not listening. Senator's and House Members and Governor Crist? Listen well; oil is on the lips of Floridians and they don't like the taste of it. Listen well; we will never let Florida forget who sold out our beautiful treasured coastline and waterways. We will never forget. Very soon we will see which Senators and House Members vote for oil and which ones vote for Florida. It is as simple a question as this: A vote for Oil or a vote for Florida?
If our leaders choose Oil we may be the last generation of Floridians who remember an unbroken horizon free of oil rigs. We may be the last generation to breath clean air free of choking diesel fuel from increased support traffic from tankers and crew boats. We may be the last generation of Floridians who remember pristine white beaches free of oil from busted pipelines and rigs. No Senators, House Members and Governor Christ we will never forget and I promise, those who vote for oil instead of Florida vote in peril of their political futures in Florida. That's a promise from this generation of Floridians. We are collectively holding our breath. For Florida's sake, choose Florida.
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Dave Rauschkolb
Founder, Hands Across The Sand
