Tampa Bay: Oil drilling plan hits a nerve nationwide, locally
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/apr/01/na-drilling-plan-hits-a-nerve/news-breaking/
Oil drilling plan hits a nerve nationwide, locally
Staff photo by JIM FARQUHAR
Pamula Hewett from Tampa put chocolate syrup on herself at a drilling protest at the Vinoy Renaissance Hotel in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.
ADVERTISEMENTBy WILLIAM MARCH
wmarch@tampatrib.com
Published: April 1, 2010
In a reversal of a long-standing ban on most offshore drilling, President Barack Obama is opening up areas of the East Coast – and possibly areas off the Gulf Coast of Florida – to oil and gas exploration and drilling.
Obama’s plan allows oil drilling on tracts 50 miles off the coast of Virginia and consideration of drilling for a large chunk of the Atlantic seaboard. At the same time, he is rejecting some drilling sites that had been planned in Alaska.
The plan drew objections Wednesday from environmentalists nationwide, and about 100 people protested outside a Newt Gingrich speech in St. Petersburg.
Its effect on Florida drew an immediate objection from Rep. Kathy Castor of Tampa, a Democrat and a strong Obama ally on most issues.
It drew guarded approval, however, from Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a longtime opponent of oil or gas drilling near the Gulf Coast.
The plan’s proposals for Florida’s Gulf Coast apparently would require congressional action to alter the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006.
Nelson said the Obama proposal comes with assurance that no activity will be allowed within 125 miles of the coast, closer than that law now allows.
Nelson said he has told the administration “if they drilled too close to Florida’s beaches they’d be risking the state’s economy and the environment. I believe this plan shows they heeded that concern.”
He said he still wants assurances from the Defense Department that the plan won’t interfere with military training in the eastern Gulf.
Castor remains “very concerned because the oil companies are never satisfied.”
“Right now we have a guarantee written into law that a 200-plus-mile line is written into place until 2022. If you agree that 125 is enough, it would be the camel’s nose under the tent. They’re not going to be satisfied.”
Rep. Vern Buchanan, a Sarasota Republican, considers Obama’s plan flawed. “It fails to open the Alaskan and Pacific coasts to drilling but allows oil rigs off the eastern Gulf of Mexico, threatening our natural resources and tourism-based economy,” he said.
The full effect of Obama’s announcement on waters off the Florida Gulf Coast wasn’t clear Wednesday.
First, a map released by the Department of the Interior appeared to conflict in some ways with assurances Nelson’s office said he had been given about a 125-mile buffer off the west coast. The areas suggested to be opened come much closer than that to the Florida Keys.
“When they met with us they said 125 miles from all points, and that’s what we’re going to hold them to,” said Nelson spokesman Dan McLaughlin. The discrepancy “could be a distortion in their drawing.”
Obama spokesman Bill Burton didn’t give a direct answer when asked by reporters whether the administration will ask for a lifting of the moratorium that currently prevents oil and gas exploration some 230 miles off Florida.
Burton also denied the proposal is a change in the position Obama took on the issue during his campaign.
“Nothing has changed,” he said. “What you see here today is a fulfillment of what the president said he was going to do.”
In fact, it appears to differ sharply from a campaign speech Obama gave in Jacksonville in June 2008, saying, “Offshore drilling would not lower gas prices today. It would not lower gas prices tomorrow. It would not lower gas prices this year. It would not lower gas prices five years from now.”
He said more drilling “would only worsen our addiction to oil” and put off investments in clean, renewable energy.”
Obama shifted that position, however, endorsing a proposal that could have opened up areas 50 miles from the Florida coast.
Michael Brune, executive director of the national Sierra Club, singled out Gulf drilling in a statement Wednesday reacting to the Obama proposal.
He said drilling off Florida “would substantially increase the chance of oil spills damaging the Everglades, the Florida Keys, fragile coral reefs and Florida’s beaches” and jeopardize the coastal tourism industry.
Obama, speaking at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington on Wednesday, said, “This is not a decision that I’ve made lightly.” He addressed the expected outcry from disappointed environmentalists by saying he had studied the issue for more than a year and concluded it was the right call given the nation’s voracious thirst for energy and the need to produce jobs and keep American businesses competitive.
Obama made no secret of the fact that one factor in his decision is attracting GOP support for a climate change bill that has languished in Congress.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Reporters Jackie Barron and Peter Bernard contributed to this report. Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761.