Our Ocean Legacy
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| When it comes to offshore drilling's impact on Gulf military operations, one thing is certain: We will not make America more secure by risking our ability to train our armed forces in the Gulf in order to obtain less than six months of oil over a 25-year period. | |
| "For Florida, the irony of drilling in a climate bill is particularly cruel. If enacted as law, these principles may spare much of our coastline from rising seas, only to mar its world renown beauty with toxic pollution and subject it to the threat of a catastrophic oil spill." | |
| "The message of this report is clear. Here in Florida, clean, sustainably enjoyed beaches are worth much more than a coastline dirtied and industrialized by drilling. Florida must slow down the rush to drill and consider what's at stake, before beaches close and tourists leave." | |
| "Big Oil and their pro-drilling friends in Congress seem to think there isn’t a patch of ocean that wouldn’t look better with oil rigs sticking out of it tomorrow," said Adam Rivera, Environment Florida Advocate. "We're fortunate to have a Senate that is willing to consider the profound negative impacts drilling could have on Florida’s coastal environment and economy." | |
| With tar balls washing up on famous Texas beaches and an oil slick almost the size of the City of Tampa floating around in the Gulf of Mexico, how can anyone think that oil drilling is safe enough and clean enough to put within 10 miles of Florida's beaches? We need Governor Crist to stop talking about gambling with our coastline before beaches close and tourists leave. | |
| "We're deeply disappointed that the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee broke its promise to Florida," said Environment Florida Advocate Adam Rivera. "This is a cautionary tale not to compromise with oil companies and their allies in Congress, since such compromises will not be upheld for long." | |
| Today, the House of Representatives rejected pro-drilling amendments to the FY08 Interior-Environment Spending Bill. These amendments would have lifted the current moratorium against new offshore drilling leases in Florida waters. | |
| Oil lobby bears down on lame-duck Congress as Democrats plot a different energy course. | |
| The U.S. House of Representatives voted to open Florida and the nation’s coasts to offshore oil and gas drilling. The House passed the Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act (H.R.4761), which ends the 25 year bipartisan moratorium that has been the bedrock of Florida’s protections against offshore drilling. | |
| Language in the FY07 Department of Interior Appropriations Bill would have eliminated Florida’s 25 year congressional moratorium against new offshore drilling leases. | |
| Today, in a 37 to 25 vote, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee voted to eviscerate the bipartisan, bicoastal Congressional moratorium on new offshore drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) that has protected our fragile coast for 22 years. | |
| Federal officials arrived in Tallahassee today for a meeting to solicit public input on plans for new offshore oil and gas drilling off Florida’s coast, and met with stiff opposition from state and federal legislators, business and environmental leaders, as well as citizens who came from as far away as Tampa and Pensacola. | |
