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.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-02-14/story/people_hold_hands_across_the_sand_to_protest_offshore_drilling_in_flori_0
Jacksonville.com
Jacksonville, Florida
People hold hands across the sand to protest offshore drilling in Florida
A statewide initiative was planned on Florida’s coasts.
        *       BY MAGGIE FITZROY
        *       STORY UPDATED AT 1:18 AM ON SUNDAY, FEB. 14, 2010
MAGGIE FITZROY/The Times-Union
Scores of people hold hands at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in Jacksonville Beach to protest possible off-shore oil drilling in Florida, part of a statewide “Hands Across the Sand” initiative.

Scores of people lined up on the shoreline in Jacksonville Beach on Saturday afternoon and held hands for 10 minutes as they looked out at the ocean.

As part of a statewide initiative called “Hands Across the Sand,” they joined thousands who planned to hold hands up and down Florida’s beaches at 1:30 p.m. to protest the possibility of oil drilling off the state’s coasts.

The Jacksonville Beach event, which met at the foot of Beach Boulevard, was organized by the Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol. And as suggested on the project’s Web site, www.handsacrossthesand.org, participants began gathering on the beach at 1 p.m.

“It’s been in the news that the Legislature wants to allow offshore drilling, but we are a fragile ecological state,” said Valerie Pickett of Atlantic Beach, who arrived with her daughter Dawson, 17, and neighbor Diana Froehlich, 18.

“We don’t need to have the issue of possible oil spills or contamination of our waters,” she said.

Steve Fouraker of Atlantic Beach, who came with several friends, said he doesn’t want to see “unsightly platforms” off the coasts, and would rather see alternative energy sources explored.

“Hopefully people feel strongly enough that they can brave being cold for 10 minutes,” said Sea Turtle Patrol director Jennifer Burns as she watched people arrive at the otherwise nearly empty beach. She said she was pleased with the turnout, despite unseasonably cold weather around the state, and hoped for good turnouts in other planned locations as well, including a protest organized by Surfrider Foundation at the St. Augustine Beach pier.

Carolyn Antman, who attended the St. Augustine protest as a member of the Duval County Audubon Society, said later that day that about 50 people came to that event just south of the city’s pier. “The morning was cold and gray,” and “it’s not a beach time of the year,” she said.”So I’m pretty well pleased that many showed up.”

While oil drilling is being considered off the Gulf Coast, “theoretically, they could drill around the entire coastline,” Burns said. While Saturday’s protest was the only one planned so far, “depending on how it moves along through the government, we might hold other events,” she said.

Tom Larson of Jacksonville Beach, who came as a member of the Sierra Club and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said “the coastal and estuarine environment of Florida is exposed to great risk” if oil drilling proposals are pursued.

Damage from oil spills around the world have proven almost impossible to repair, in addition, there is not that much oil off Florida, compared to what world markets demand, he said.
“Florida stands on tourism, and offering the world our wonderful scene. We’d be putting that at risk for the relatively minor benefits of this local oil.”

maggie.fitzroy@shorelines.com, (904) 249-4947, ext. 6320.
special thanks to Richard Charter ________________________

About 400 people stood at Smathers Beach in Key West  to protest oil drilling as part of the February 13 Hands Across the Sand event.  

BY CAMMY CLARK AND ROBERT SAMUELS

http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/1479494.html?storylink=omni_popular

rsamuels@MiamiHerald.com

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61C2LT20100213

Sat Feb 13, 2010 4:59pm EST

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Reuters) – Thousands of Floridians demonstrated against moves to allow offshore oil drilling on Saturday along the east and west coasts of the state in a protest dubbed “Hands Across the Sand.”

Organizer David Rauschkolb said about 80 demonstrations took place at beaches from Pensacola on the northwest coast of Florida to Key West in the south and Jacksonville in the north.  “This issue is one Floridians care about, protecting our waterways and coastlines from the devastating effects of oil exploration,” Rauschkolb said in a telephone interview. He owns a beachfront restaurant in Seaside, Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico.

Legislation to allow oil drilling off the Florida coast passed the Florida House of Representatives last year but was blocked by Republican Governor Charlie Crist and the state Senate.  Oil-drilling opponents fear the legislation may come up again in this year’s legislative session. Supporters of offshore drilling say it is needed to reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil.

“I don’t think this issue is going away,” Rauschkolb said.

In St. Petersburg, about 200 people including local officials, parents and children gathered at a beach resort hotel despite chilly weather and strong winds.  Most wore black to symbolize an oil spill. They stood in line facing the Gulf of Mexico and holding hands for several minutes as a small plane flew overhead towing a banner that read: “Love tourists – not drilling.”

“Do you really want oil washing up on our beaches?” local organizer Cathy Harrelson said.

 Writing by Robert Green; Editing by Peter Cooney. Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/water/hundreds-line-pinellas-beaches-to-protest-near-shore-oil-drilling/1073098TampaBay.com
St. Pete Times

By Curtis Krueger, Times Staff Writer
Posted: Feb 13, 2010 03:30 PM
 
ST. PETE BEACH – Hundreds of people linked hands and lined Pinellas County’s beaches on Saturday, taking a stand against oil drilling along Florida’s coastline.

“We’re not going to stand here and allow drilling right off these beautiful beaches,” U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores, said at a gathering of elected officials and organizers at the Sirata Beach Resort and Conference Center.   Later, hundreds joined hands on the windy beaches, as waves crashed to the shore. The demonstrations in Pinellas County were part of a statewide effort on more than 70 beaches.

Bob Ullmark, 53, said he came to the event because “we don’t want any nasty oil in the water.”

“We don’t want to see any environmental catastrophes,” added Kathy Sterling, 30, of St. Petersburg, who brought her 1-year-old daughter Lily.

State political leaders traditionally have opposed drilling near Florida beaches, fearing the devastating impact an oil spill could have on the tourism industry.   But high oil prices, the faltering economy and a quest for U.S. energy independence have led some to push for more drilling.

The speakers and demonstrators on Saturday wanted to present a united front against that idea.
“This is bipartisan, you have Republicans and Democrats,” said state Rep. Rick Kriseman, D-St. Petersburg.

Special thanks to Richard Charter