POSITION PAPER – FLORIDA COASTAL OIL DRILLING
Maurice A. Ferre – Candidate for the United States Senate 2010
Title: Oil Drilling off Florida’s Coast puts Florida’s Economy at Serious Risk
Issue: Offshore Oil Drilling in the State of Florida
Position: Maurice Ferre, candidate from the State of Florida for the United States Senate in 2010 OPPOSES lifting the existing State and Federal ban to allow oil drilling off the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic Coast of Florida for mostly economic reasons.
Background:
The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico which started on April 20 that is spewing an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil a day may cripple for years the Florida coastline, along with its beaches and wetlands. Currently in the U.S. Senate, Florida’s Sr. Senator Bill Nelson (D. FL) is strongly against lifting the oil drilling ban. Recently appointed Sen. George LeMieux (R. FL) was a lobbyist for the speculators pushing the lifting of the ban. Our next U.S. Senator must face the issue of drilling off the coast of Florida.
Presently, there is a 125 mile Federal ban on oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Lifting the Gulf of Mexico ban would allow drilling within 3-10 miles of our precious award winning beaches.
President Barack Obama recently approved a relaxation of his campaign position against more off shore drilling to negotiate an energy bill with Republicans. He has obviously pulled back after the Deepwater – Horizon – BP disaster in the Golf of Mexico.
No American wants U.S. dependency on foreign oil, especially from hostile Middle East countries and Venezuela. We all want cheap gasoline and U.S waters, shorelines, not tarnished. But, let’s look at the whole picture:
Currently, 37 million acres of deep seabed in the central & western Gulf of Mexico are available for oil exploration, however, only 7 million of those acres, or 19%, have been leased and partially explored. The remaining 81%, or 30 million acres, have not been explored, yet. They need to be explored before drilling next to Florida’s beaches.
Despite the plentiful amount of seabed available for drilling, speculating companies in Texas and Louisiana, behind this drill push, want more. They want to drill off Florida’s Gulf and now, also the Atlantic Coast – A FIRST.
I will aggressively oppose such a measure as a member of the United States Senate. These are the reasons why…
Economic Issue
Florida’s tourism economy is dependent on its turquoise coastal waters and pristine powder sand beaches. The juice from drilling off Florida’s coast is not worth the squeeze of putting our larger economy at great risk.
The vast majorities of our visitors are attracted to Florida’s unique white sand beaches and developed tourist shoreline. Oil drilling proponents are asserting that opening up Florida’s hurricane prone waters to drilling would provide a financial “boom” of over $2 billion dollars a year. However, Florida’s economy produces over $550 billion a year; $65 billion comes directly from tourism, largely generated from Florida’s 800 miles of pristine beaches and 200 miles of coral reefs, the 4th largest reef system in the world.
Removing the ban on drilling off the coast of Florida and allowing closer offshore oil exploration is unnecessary because it puts our uniquely fragile ecosystem at risk with modern oil drilling rigs that have already proven faulty and recently resulted in disastrous damage to the Gulf of Mexico as seen by the Deepwater Horizon- BP blowout.
There are plenty of previous examples of the severe affects of an oil spill. The Tampa Bay Spill of 1993 soaked 13 miles of sandy beaches, resulting in a 50% drop in hotel bookings and a two year dip in tourism, and an 80% drop in commercial fishing. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed 46 oil platforms and damaged 54 pipelines, with 50 oil spills reported in the near shore environment. [1][2]
It makes little business sense for the people of the State of Florida to subject themselves to this risk. Rather than allowing out-of-state oil exploratory speculators to dictate public policy, legislation should support stronger policies to reduce our overall consumption of petroleum through alternative fuels, conservation, increasing fuel economy standards, the development of high speed rail systems, bus rapid transit (BRT) and other user friendly forms of transportation.
I would only consider putting Florida’s pristine beaches at risk after all other environmentally sound sources of oil and gas in North America have been developed. The U.S. is blessed with new discoveries of onshore natural gas that will supply our needs for centuries. America is bringing new oil and gas into production, and our major trading partners Canada and Mexico are also finding major new sources of oil and gas.
In addition, I am confident that many years from now, when all those resources are depleted, our country will have seen the emergence of advanced biofuels, new technologies that take algae, or sugar, or lignin (wood fiber) molecules and turn them directly into gasoline and jet fuel. I do not believe we will ever need to sacrifice the beauty and the economic benefit we receive from Florida’s coastal waters to the Everglades from any of the special places we have worked so hard to protect. Only the most short-sighted and selfish thinking Floridians would tell us we need to hand over the health of our environmentally-based economy to a few reckless oil speculators.
Speculators
Those supporting the lifting of the ban are not big oil companies, but ‘wildcatters’ speculating the opportunity to flip and sell new concession.
Former counselor, now U.S. Senator, George LeMieux previously worked for one of these speculators, Florida Energy Associates, FEA, a corporation formed in December 2008 by Daytona Beach Lawyer Doug Daniels.
Sen. LeMieux quit working for FEA after he was appointed by Governor Charlie Crist to fill the remaining 16 months of retired Sen. Mel Martinez’s seat. [3]
Associated Industries of Florida, the state’s biggest business lobbying group, was leading the fight for the “Drill Baby Drill” bill, but the lobbyist refuses to identify all of those who are paying for an expensive lobbying and public relations campaign that included statewide television and newspaper advertising.
Phillips of Mexia, Texas, and Dallas lawyer William Lewis Sessions, appeared before a U.S. House committee considering the issue. Phillips owns Oil and Gas Acquisitions, an independent oil and gas exploration company, and is chairman of the Limestone County Republican Party. [4]
Dirty Drilling
Drilling is a fundamentally dirty practice and despite the promised ‘safe’ technology proposed, there are no proven ‘no leak’ technologies available, as is again OBVIOUS WITH THE APRIL 20, BP spill, 45 miles off the coast of Louisiana and now threatening the beaches of Florida.
The oil industry makes its case for drilling within a few miles of Florida’s coast by trumpeting a new kind of drilling that is “virtually invisible” from the coast, known as the subsea system. However, a Sarasota Herald-Tribune examination found that the promises made by drilling proponents are largely inclined to put in doubt this claim.
One of the subsea systems being touted is almost exclusively used in water that is thousands of feet deeper than Florida’s coastal waters. Subsea systems are intended for water more than 5,000 feet deep. Florida’s coastline, within the 10 miles the state controls, runs no deeper than 100 feet. The only way subsea systems would be viable off Florida’s coast is if large traditional drilling platforms were built nearby or the state allowed refineries and miles of pipelines. This is unlikely to occur since a new oil refinery has not been permitted in the U.S. since the 1970s.
Using the same new technology touted by pro-drilling lobbyists, the 2007 built West Atlas oil rig started spilling August 21, 2009, and continued spilling 400 barrels daily for 70 days, resulting in a spill larger than the state of Connecticut. Conservationists estimated that the oil covered an area of at least 5,800 square miles and will more than likely have a detrimental effect on the environment and the local marine life and the Australian economy. [5][6]
Oil, Fuels and Transportation
The transportation sector accounts for nearly three quarters of all petroleum use in the U.S. and is responsible for 42% of carbon emissions. Concentrating on efficient fuel economy standards, HEVs (hybrid-electric vehicles), high speed and light rail alternative transportation and advanced automotive technologies would help dramatically reduce petroleum consumption.
Recommended Solutions:
1. Develop the extensive U.S. oil and gas reserves onshore and after a full investigation and reforms from the BP spill, in deep-water offshore regions where new drilling technologies are capable of producing with less environmental risk – but, for the first time in our history, also have the federal government actually enforce the laws that require exploration and drilling to be conducted in an environmentally safe manner.
2. Raise fuel economy standards — Raising the average automobile fuel economy from 23 to 35 mpg could save 1.2 billion barrels of oil every year in the U.S.
3. Encourage new automobile technology – If half the cars on the road by 2030 were hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs), the U.S. could reduce petroleum consumption by 1.2 million barrels per year. Additionally the U.S. has finally joined the global race to produce more advanced batteries that could allow even more cars to run on electricity, and to reduce our oil use even more.
4. Use of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) which is a natural gas that has been converted temporarily to liquid form for ease of storage or transport. In December of 2009, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a certificate of public necessity and convenience to build and operate an on-shore pipeline to connect to its deep water LNG port off the West Coast of Florida. The new deep water port will deliver natural gas through an undersea pipeline to connect with the State’s system 4 miles inland from Port Manatee. The deep water port will have peak send out capacity of up to 1.2 billion cubic feet per day, enough to power 1 million homes. Fully operation, that’s enough to meet 15% of Florida’s Natural Gas needs.[7]
5. Develop advanced biofuels — Continue research and development of cellulosic ethanol, which offers more real environmental protection than corn-based ethanol. Other technologies offer even more hope – turning sugar, wood fiber or algae directly into clean synthetic gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. The U.S. Energy Department analysis shows that the world will be using oil and gas for many decades, – but now we can see a future with transportation fuels that are high-energy, abundant, and that will not be made from petroleum or coal. New fuels for transportation should also include LNG.
6. Invest in better transportation and urban development planning, so more Floridians can live closer to their work, and can get to work on modern, comfortable public transportation: High Speed Rail for inter-city travel, Commuter Rail and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) for urban travel. Highways and cars have helped us grow, and will continue to be vital, but we need point-to-point and multi modal ground traveling systems that provide efficient service from different modes of transit.
7. Solar power, the generation of electricity from sunlight, is a viable alternative to partially supply the energy consumption of Florida. FPL is currently constructing 3 Solar Power Plants in Florida: DeSoto’s Next Generation Solar Energy Center, a 25 megawatt solar array, that will power more than 3,000 homes, a Solar Thermal facility in Martin County and a 10 megawatt solar PV facility on the Space Coast. The three solar projects combined are creating more than 1,500 direct jobs and more than 5,000 total jobs for the state of Florida. [8]
General Conclusions:
1. Drilling for oil and gas in Florida’s coastal waters is not necessary to reduce our use of foreign oil and to meet our national energy needs. Nor will it reduce the price of gasoline in the U.S. Instead, alternatives must be adopted such as implementing more environmentally friendly drilling tactics in less vulnerable areas, a rise in fuel economy standards, more HEV technologies used in automobiles, increased usage of natural gas (LNG), development of advanced biofuels, more investment in transportation and urban development, and finally alternative energy sources such as solar power, to have a less economic dependency on oil.
2. The juice is not worth the squeeze – Florida’s tourism economy is dependent on our beaches and clean shores – offshore drilling in our hurricane prone state puts our larger economy at risk. We need to prioritize our economic policies to focus on what’s better for Florida in the long-term. What makes common sense?
3. Our economic future cannot be for sale -We cannot let a few companies make short-term profits by damaging Florida’s long-term economy.
4. No matter what the speculators claim, drilling is a dirty business . . .for our beaches and coastal communities — Drilling is a fundamentally dirty practice and despite the promised ‘safe’ technology proposed, there are no proven no-leak technologies in place.
5. Protecting Florida’s beaches and tourist economy is not a Republican or Democratic Issue – Before “Drill Baby Drill” became a partisan campaign slogan, falsely trying to portray our multi-billion dollar tourist economy as worthless compared to a few oil wells, the 125 mile ban on oil drilling in the Gulf was supported by former Republican Governor Jeb Bush and Democratic Senator Bill Nelson. Even if high-powered lobbying campaigns by the oil speculators have made this issue more partisan, the fact is that prosperity and opportunity for all Floridians depend on keeping our coastal waters and beaches clean, fun and filled with healthy fisheries.
6. I’m happy for the opportunity to stand up for Florida’s economy and environment, but don’t just take my word for it — To date, more than 30 Florida counties, cities and organizations have passed resolutions to oppose lifting the ban on oil drilling, to name a few: City of Tampa, City of Sarasota, Sarasota County, City of St. Petersburg, City of Miami Beach, City of Clearwater, Collier County (Naples), Lee County (Ft. Myers), Bay County, City of Pensacola, Escambia County, City of Tarpon Springs, Walton County, Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association. [9]
Even after the Deepwater Horizon- BP disaster, it’s not too late, lessons can still be taken away to avoid future disasters which would endanger our state’s natural ecosystem. President Obama needs to change his position as recommended by environmental advocates requesting that public hearings and legislation be pursued to tighten oversight. The “Drill Baby Drill” mentality has confused public opinion by solely focusing on the issue of foreign dependency on oil rather than dealing with the real problem which is our dependency on oil. Currently, there are plenty of existing oil rigs and much of the current deep water seabed still unexplored. There is no reason to put Florida in harms way. We can’t drill out of our energy problems of oil dependency. It is well known that additional drilling in our coastal waters will only result in a marginal impact to consumers at the gas pump. Viable solutions must be pursued so that we can reduce our dependency on foreign energy and lead Florida into the economy of the future which will flourish with alternative sources of energy.
[1] http://thebeachsideresident.com/2009/11/surfrider-news-and-events-november-09/
[2] http://www.tos.org/oceanography/issues/issue…/19…/19.2_cs_pine.pdf
[3] http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/article1046163.ece
[4] http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/legislature/article995616.ece
[7] http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=83420
[8] http://www.fpl.com/news/2009/102709a.shtml
[9] http://surfriderfoundationfl.wordpress.com/campaigns/oil-drilling/
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