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.
