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Florida Drilling Plan Alters Political Landscape

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Times Staff Writer

Opposing offshore drilling for oil and gas has traditionally been a bipartisan affair in Florida, where the $57-billion annual tourism industry is greatly dependent on unsullied, inviting beaches.

But an announcement by Gov. Jeb Bush may signal the end of that political unity -- and a split in his own party.

The Republican governor has endorsed a plan, part of a bill proposed by a California congressman that would allow, among other things, oil rigs 125 miles off the coast. In exchange, Bush said, the state would get other coastal protections.

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But environmentalists and Republican and Democratic critics say what Bush advocates would actually allow for oil and gas exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico closer to Florida.

“The governor is seeking better protection, and lasting protection, for Florida’s coasts,” Bush spokeswoman Deena Reppen said in defending his stance.

She said the governor wanted a secure 125-mile ban on oil and gas drilling off the state’s shoreline from Jacksonville on the Atlantic Ocean to Pensacola on the gulf.

The proposed legislation -- and the pressure to support it -- comes as fuel prices are at record highs and energy production in the gulf has been crippled by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Democratic Rep. Robert Wexler accused Bush, who cannot seek reelection when his second term expires next year, of performing a flip-flop that “abandons Florida’s coast.”

“For many years, the Florida congressional delegation, Republicans and Democrats, has been unified in opposing drilling off the Florida coastline,” Wexler said. He said that meant in the waters up to three miles from the coast that are under Florida’s control, and in the adjacent belt, extending 200 miles from shore, where the federal government regulates drilling for oil and gas.

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“Gov. Bush unfortunately has effectively undermined that unity,” Wexler said. “Now it’s all negotiable.”

Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.) said last week that the plan would be a good deal for Florida.

Republican Sen. Mel Martinez said he had a “little different strategy than Bush.”

“It’s not the right thing for our environment, it’s not the right thing for Florida’s economy, and frankly it’s not the right thing for the military who rely greatly on the eastern Gulf of Mexico as a training ground for the military presence that we have in the Florida Panhandle,” Martinez said.

Florida’s other senator, Bill Nelson, a Democrat, also is adamantly opposed to opening up waters nearer to the state to drilling, spokesman Dan McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin said the Interior Department had estimated that hydrocarbon reserves off western Florida and the Panhandle would cover about 200 days of the nation’s gasoline and heating oil needs. It is not a sufficient gain, McLaughlin said, to expose Florida’s tourism industry and fragile subtropical environment to the “gigantic risk” of spills or other accidents.

Bush’s position appears to have sown disarray in his state’s 27-member congressional delegation, which, Wexler said, had been virtually unanimous as recently as late September in opposing major changes in where offshore drilling is allowed.

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“Gov. Bush has come and undermined all of that,” Wexler said.

Pressure from oil and gas interests to lift drilling bans in Florida’s coastal waters and across the country has forced the state’s elected representatives to consider their positions. Adding to the pressure is a bill proposed by Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy), chairman of the House Committee on Resources.

A goal of Pombo’s bill, said Jennifer Zuccarelli, the committee’s press secretary, is to “diversify energy resources geographically so we’re not so dependent on one area of the gulf.”

Congressional staffers said the bill, parts of which are being negotiated, would allow individual states to decide whether to keep bans on coastal drilling intact after 2012, when they expire. States that allowed energy production off their coasts would receive 50% of the revenue.

Florida environmentalists called the proposal from the California Republican a bad deal for their state.

“I think the Pombo bill represents a major weakening of the protections we have,” said Mark Ferrullo, director of the Florida Public Interest Research Group, a Tallahassee-based environmental advocacy organization.

“Right now, off the coast of Florida, there are not now, nor have there ever been, any production rigs, and that’s going out 300 miles,” Ferrullo said. He said the bill also didn’t address existing leases whose holders, for the moment, were barred from exploiting them.

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“Those are loaded guns pointed right at our coastline and our way of life,” Ferrullo said. “The day after this [the Pombo bill] passes, and a big press conference is held saying we’re protecting Florida’s coast, Exxon or Chevron could apply to build a production rig 11 miles off our coast.”

McLaughlin, Nelson’s spokesman, questioned the logic of diversifying energy production by putting more oil and gas platforms in the gulf, which hurricanes Katrina and Rita have shown to be vulnerable.

Bush’s entourage spent much of last week denying that he had reversed position on the coastal drilling issue, or had become less ecologically minded in the waning months of his governorship. But as some of the state’s newspapers noted, Bush had written Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton in April 2001 seeking a much broader ban on drilling off western Florida and the Panhandle.

“My position has been that there should be no such activity in the entire eastern gulf,” Bush wrote.

Reppen, Bush’s spokeswoman, said the proposed federal legislation would empower Florida’s leaders to decide whether to allow drilling in coastal waters, instead of having to engage in periodic bargaining sessions with the Department of the Interior.

“He’s looking beyond his own term,” Reppen said. “The Pombo bill would place the future of Florida’s offshore waters in the hands of the governor and the Florida Legislature, so they can determine their own fate, instead of engaging every five years in a new fight with the federal government.”

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In contrast, Martinez likened the bill to a Pandora’s box that he said would undermine Florida’s ability to protect its beaches and other coastal areas.

The Republican senator noted that an amendment had been added to lift all existing moratoriums on drilling for natural gas on the outer continental shelf, including in Florida’s gulf waters.

“Look, it’s give an inch and take a mile with these folks,” Martinez said. “I’m hopeful that exercise was a wake-up call that, at this point, nothing Floridians offer in exchange for permanent control over our own waters will ever be enough for the pro-drilling interests. They will always want more. That’s why we need to stand firm in maintaining all current protections off Florida’s coast.”

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