Vice presidential candidate Charlie Crist, formerly Florida's environmental
governor, showed on Tuesday what drives him.
Polls, he said, show that
"people are much more favorably inclined" these days to expand offshore drilling
to help ease their pain at the gas pump.
Polls and an overwhelming desire
to actually become presidential candidate John McCain's running mate.
How
else to explain what drove Mr. Crist's shockingly disappointing reversal of his
long-standing position opposing offshore drilling? Mr. Crist's reversal came
moments after Mr. McCain's, in which the presumptive Republican nominee
abandoned his longtime support of a federal ban on new offshore oil
exploration.
Let's leave it to the states, said Mr. McCain.
Watch
what I can do with that opening, Mr. Crist seemed to reply. His predecessor in
the Governor's Office, Jeb Bush, strongly fought attempts in Washington to lift
a federal ban on new offshore oil exploration. That wasn't an easy thing for him
to do, since it was his brother, the president, who most wanted it
lifted.
But it was the right thing to do. Oil spills could devastate
Florida's environment and economy.
But listen, now, to Mr. Crist. Trust
him, he says. "I hope I have a reputation of wanting to protect this
environment." Till now, he did. He crusaded against climate change and appointed
eco-friendly administrators to land- and water-management posts.
But the
still-valid arguments against allowing new rigs just 50 miles out to sea don't
evaporate, Mr. Crist, just because you and a poll suddenly suggest they no
longer hold much water.
Those arguments still have Republican Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger of California convinced he should continue opposing more drilling
off his state's similarly vulnerable coastline.
That's because, despite
Sen. McCain's assurance that offshore drilling is "safe enough these days," the
Minerals Management Service, the federal agency regulating offshore drilling,
reported 124 oil spills caused by the 2005 hurricanes.
And why drill for
more oil in waters Florida Sens. Mel Martinez and Bill Nelson successfully
fought to protect in 2006, when oil companies still haven't exhausted 82 percent
of the area they've been granted leases to explore and tap?
And why
threaten coastal homes, commercial fisheries and wildlife with possible oil
spills if any new oil found won't make its way to pumps for seven to 10 years,
and provide just scant relief?
Why do that and threaten your earlier
record promoting more conservation and less reliance on fossil fuels? Why do
that, Mr. Crist, unless it's the thought of "Charlie Crist, vice president,"
that's driving you, instead of your mission to do what's best for Florida as
governor?
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