Less than one year after Florida Senators passed a
compromise bill opening 8.3 million acres of Florida’s eastern gulf waters to
oil drilling, Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) has filed an amendment to the Senate
Energy Bill, that would renege on that deal and allow oil and gas drilling 45
miles from Florida’s coast.
Statement of Environment Florida Director Mark
Ferrulo:
“Despite the critical need to kick our nation’s addiction to
oil, we have leaders in Congress who support only one 12-step program – step
one, drill off Florida’s coast; step two, drill off Florida’s coast; step three,
drill off Florida’s coast . . .
The ink is barely dry on the deal passed by Congress last
year that allowed expanded drilling in Florida’s waters, in exchange for
providing a 250+ mile buffer zone of protection for most of our coast until
2022. I guess in Congress, a deal is a deal, only until big oil and their
champions in Congress say it isn’t anymore.
The Dorgan drilling amendment to the Senate Energy Bill poses
a serious threat to our coastal tourism industry, productive fisheries and our
world famous beaches.
No amount of drilling off Florida’s coast is going to change
the fact that our nation only has 3% of the world’s oil reserves, and that we
consume 25% of the world’s oil supply. We cannot drill our way to energy
security, and we cannot allow those who would profit from doing so to despoil
our fragile, magnificent coastal environment.”
