Palm Beach Post Editorial
Monday, November 13, 2006
This week, the lame-duck session of Congress could try to push through a bill on oil drilling off Florida's coasts. Waiting for the new Congress is a better plan.
Florida's senators, Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Mel Martinez, have safeguards for Florida's coasts in the Senate bill. The House-passed bill would open more of the Gulf of Mexico to drilling and give states more money. Sens. Nelson and Martinez are right to insist that only the Senate bill is acceptable.
That legislation would allow drilling for the first time on 8.3 million acres in the eastern gulf but protect Florida's beaches by keeping rigs at least 125 miles from the northwest coast and at least 235 miles from the Tampa Bay area through 2022. It also would give coastal states 37.5 percent of royalties oil and gas companies pay the federal government. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., hopes to secure that money for her state.
The House bill would give states up to 50 percent of royalties from new leases, but the chances of negotiating a combined bill that the Senate would approve seem slim. Sen. Nelson, an aide said, is looking ahead to the next Congress to work for "whatever bill is needed for maximum protection for Florida."
The work will be easier without Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., chairman of the House Resources Committee. He lost to Democrat Jerry McNerney. Environmental groups worked to defeat Rep. Pombo because of his attempts to gut the Endangered Species Act, open the nation's coasts to offshore drilling, weaken laws that protect air and water, open public lands to development, sell millions of acres of national park land and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.
With Rep. Pombo gone and a new Congress ready to take over, better energy legislation has a chance, and Florida's beaches can be safer.
