Ad Accuses ‘Texas Oilman’ Bush of Supporting Drilling off Florida

An environmental group charged in a new television advertisement that President Bush supported new oil drilling off Florida -- a claim his reelection campaign denied.

The 30-second commercial was financed by the League of Conservation Voters, which has endorsed Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

It began airing Tuesday in the Tampa and Orlando markets, as well as in Washington.

The Bush administration supports exploratory drilling in many areas of the country.

But in Florida, where the president’s brother, Jeb Bush, is governor and which narrowly gave him his winning margin in the 2000 election, the Interior Department in 2001 scaled back a plan for oil and gas production in the eastern Gulf of Mexico begun by the Clinton administration.

The action barred drilling within 100 miles of the state coastline.

The president promoted his policy last month at a campaign event.

“There is no ambiguity in my position on drilling off the coast of Florida,” he said in a speech quoted in the new ad.

But the TV spot contends that his administration’s policies belie his words.

“President Bush opened up Florida’s coast to offshore drilling, and he’s supported an energy bill that could lead to even more,” a narrator says. “Well, what would you expect from a Texas oilman?”

The environmentalists contend that oil and gas rigs more than 100 miles offshore would still threaten the state’s pristine beaches.

They also argue that a Bush-backed energy bill in Congress would take further steps to expand potential gulf drilling.

Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt denounced the ad as “egregiously false” and said Kerry was more likely to support drilling off Florida. The Democrat’s campaign denied that.

Also this week, the New Democrat Network, a centrist party group, unveiled new Spanish-language television commercials that featured New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Anaheim, who are Latino. The ads are being aired in Florida and several states in the Southwest.