Our Ocean Legacy In the News

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink is angry that Gov. Charlie Crist no longer supports a federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling, and said Wednesday she wants Congress to know not everyone in Florida agrees.

Sink quickly called a press conference after returning to the Capitol because she wanted to make sure people didn't read headlines about the governor's switch and think offshore drilling was something the state wanted.

"He's one person, he's one public official, and I'm another statewide elected official who heard a lot about this when I was out campaigning," Sink said. "This is not the right thing to do in Florida. I don't want those people in Washington to think all of a sudden the people in Florida support oil drilling off our coast."

Crist had repeatedly opposed offshore drilling during his 2006 campaign and beyond. In a meeting with the state's congressional delegation in December 2006, he said he wanted them to keep opposing drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Likewise, he asked the same of presidential candidates last year.

But this week Republican John McCain said he supports lifting the federal moratorium on offshore drilling. Crist, who has campaigned extensively for McCain, then said he does too. Sink said she was "stunned" when she heard the news.

"The more I thought about it, the angrier I got," said Sink, the only Democrat to sit on Florida's three-person Cabinet.

Environmentalists, who have praised Crist for promoting alternative energy and speaking out about climate change, were also criticizing Crist on Wednesday.

"It is particularly disappointing that Gov. Crist, who last summer pledged to make Florida a leader in reducing global warming pollution and is set to host a climate change summit in Miami next week, is supporting a proposal that would accelerate climate change by promoting the outdated, dirty energy sources of the past," said Holly Binns of Environment Florida.