http://www.newsherald.com/articles/drilling-81444-oil-military.html

News-Herald.com  Panama City
Oil drilling legislation not likely this year, lawmakers say
Patronis: Constituents’ views ‘a mixed bag’
February 15, 2010 06:00:00 AM

Area legislators expressed doubts Friday that the Florida Legislature will pass any offshore oil drilling-related bills in 2010 due to concerns about impacts on military missions, the region’s tourism industry and the environment.

“My gut tells me it won’t be this year,” said Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Panama City.  The Florida House of Representatives passed a bill late in the 2009 session that would have allowed the governor and his three-member Cabinet to consider and award drilling leases in state waters as close as 3 miles to shore.  The Florida Senate refused to take up the House bill, with no other drilling legislation reaching the Senate floor for a vote.

A few months after the end of the 2009 legislative session, Bay County military advocates and business interests expressed reservations about offshore oil drilling in Florida waters, with the Bay Defense Alliance and Bay County Chamber of Commerce releasing a joint statement in October 2009 that opposed any legislation in conflict with the military’s gulf training missions.

The statement included a University of West Florida Haas Center estimate putting Tyndall Air Force Base’s and Naval Support Activity Panama City’s annual economic impact at $2.3 billion and a list of some of the missions performed by those bases and Eglin Air Force Base in the Gulf Test Range.   Patronis said he not seen any proposed House offshore oil drilling legislation filed thus far.  Senate President Jeff Atwater has asked a committee to study the environmental impacts of drilling, Patronis said.  He said the Senate leader, who has announced his intention to run for the state’s chief financial officer post, won’t be rushing any drilling bills to the Senate floor.  “Jeff Atwater has been pretty blunt about not taking up drilling until he’s seen the facts,” Patronis said.

Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said the House seems more interested than the Senate in taking up oil drilling legislation, and he would be surprised to see any oil drilling legislation taken up on the Senate floor this year.   In October 2009, Gaetz said oil drilling did not appear to be at the top of his constituents’ priorities in terms of legislative issues.  Since then, Gaetz said Friday, his constituents have displayed significantly more interest in the offshore oil drilling issue.  The Niceville senator said he has talked privately to some military officials about the issue.

Eglin Air Force Base Commander Col. Bruce McClintock told the House Military Affairs and Local Policy Committee in January he had concerns about oil and gas drilling and its possible disruption of flight testing in the gulf.   Without specifically citing McClintock’s committee testimony, Gaetz acknowledged the military has been more public about its concerns that he ever has seen, something the senator said the Legislature should take into consideration when it looks at offshore oil drilling.  He said his vote on the issue continues to be motivated by any effect drilling would have on military missions.  “The military missions in this area are the basis of Northwest Florida’s economy,” Gaetz said.

Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna, said she continues to educate herself on the drilling issue, which still provokes strong opinions from voters in her district.  “It honestly, it is divisive,” Coley said of the issue.   Coley said she and Patronis, as well as Tyndall Air Force Base and Navy leaders, recently met with Speaker-designate Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, to talk about the impact offshore drilling would have on gulf military missions.   Coley said she thought Cannon, a proponent of offshore oil drilling, came away from the meeting with a better idea of the military’s economic and national defense importance in the region.   She said she still would vote no on any bill that adversely affects military missions or the area’s tourism industry.

Patronis said his constituents’ views on drilling are “a mixed bag,” with some opposed and other voters adamant about exploration as a way to achieve energy independence.