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Stop Offshore Drilling

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Once again, proposals to open Florida’s coastal waters to new offshore drilling are making headlines.  Recently, Presidential candidate Senator John McCain and President Bush called for lifting the moratorium on new oil and gas drilling that has protected Florida’s coastline for decades. Even worse, Florida Governor Charlie Crist is supporting the proposal. 

Drilling for oil off our coasts and in our last protected places is a destructive policy that will put our beaches and wild places at risk while doing nothing to reduce our dependence on foreign oil or the costs to consumers at the pump. We are in this mess because of years of doing the wrong thing, and it’s time for a change.  We need to use less oil by increasing fuel economy, increasing funding for public transportation and planning for better transportation systems.

How You Can Help

Click here to email Gov. Crist and urge him to protect Florida’s coast from oil and gas drilling off Florida's coast.

Brief Summary

Offshore Drilling: A Bad Idea Then, A Bad Idea Now

The nature of Florida—our environment, our culture, our economy—is defined by our shores. That’s why for decades Floridians have been united in their opposition to offshore drilling. The risks, we said, were too high; the rewards far too small.

Now, in the wake of rising oil and gas prices, some of Florida’s elected officials are ready to reverse course and open the door to offshore drilling.

We disagree. Allowing drilling off our shores was wrong for Florida years ago and it’s wrong for Florida today. Our environment would suffer serious, perhaps catastrophic and long-lasting harm. It’s simply not worth it, even now.

As this debate rages in the weeks and months to come, now more than ever, we need to let our leaders know where we stand.

Will Florida Stand United Against Drilling?
Allies of the oil industry in Congress and the White House are aggressively pushing legislation that threatens our world famous coast. Incredibly, Gov. Crist and some members of our congressional delegation have supported proposals that would promote drilling closer to Florida’s beaches and undermine Florida’s existing protections, including a repeal of the moratorium against new drilling leases that has been in place since the 1980s. Florida’s elected leaders have stood together against offshore drilling in the past. We need them to stand united again in defense of our coast now.

Oil Rigs: A Risk Florida’s Shores Can’t Afford
At each stage of testing, exploration, and production, the oil and gas business produces contaminated water, uses toxic drilling muds, and periodically spills oil and toxic liquids into the ocean.  Pollutants like mercury and persistent hydrocarbons contaminate fish and sea life near platforms and massive spills kill seabirds, sea turtles, fish and marine mammals. 

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed over 100 drilling rigs and platforms and over 450 pipelines. The Minerals Management Service estimated almost one million gallons spilled during the hurricane from offshore facilities; the Coast Guard documented an estimated nine million gallons from onshore and offshore oil facilities were spilled. 

Based on the experience of other Gulf drilling operations, small spills, like the 500 gallon spill off a Louisiana rig a few years ago, would be common. A catastrophic spill—one that could close down coastal tourism for weeks or months, is a real possibility.

We Have Cleaner, Safer Choices
Oil drilling proponents say we have no choice, given rising oil and gas prices. They’re wrong.

If our cars and trucks got an average of a couple more miles per gallon, we’d save more oil than exists off the entire coast of Florida. Yet federal gas mileage standards haven’t significantly changed in 20 years. Instead of allowing oil companies to drill off our coast, our governor and congressional delegation should be leading the fight in Washington and in Tallahassee for better gas mileage and clean energy.

Tell Our Leaders: Stop The Rush To Drill
The oil lobby would like us to believe that we can drill our way out of our nation’s energy problems. We’re not buying it. Opening our shores to drilling would only put our beaches and coastal waters at great risk for a small, short-term supply of oil and gas. We can do better.

Our congressional representatives know this. But they’re facing enormous pressure to take action against rising energy prices. Caving into the oil lobby would give them a chance to appear strong and decisive. Unfortunately for us, though, we’d still face a long-term energy crisis while our environment and economy would face new risks due to the pollution and potential for catastrophic spills off our coast.

We need to tell our leaders in Congress to stop the rush to drill—and start pushing sensible choices like using less oil by increasing fuel economy, increasing funding for public transportation and planning for better transportation systems.

Watch Environment Florida Director Mark Ferrulo on the CBS Evening News about offshore drilling.