The Florida Times-Union goes on to say:
jacksonville.com
Sunday, April 29, 2001
Story last updated at 11:12 p.m. on Saturday, April 28, 2001
Oil rig off coast a dark idea on gulf coast
Residents protective of beaches, tourism
By Thomas B. Pfankuch
Times-Union staff writer
PENSACOLA BEACH -- It begins as a rolling swell of the deepest blue, then turns a translucent emerald before smashing white-topped and wild onto the beach.
There, the wave curls onto what the locals call "sugar," a rare, soft sand made of quartz particles that are bone white and sparkle in the sunlight.
Watching the repeating wonder from a lounge chair last week, Monica Palmer of Pensacola found it hard to even consider that anyone would want to build oil rigs just 30 miles away.
Yet that is exactly what is being proposed. Federal officials, including President Bush, have signaled they are willing to allow oil and natural gas drilling platforms in Florida's waters for the first time ever.
Like many coastal residents, Palmer sees the drilling issue in simple terms: These magnificent gulf beaches may be endangered for the sake of oil.
"You get that black stuff out there, whether it's 30 miles out or 100, and it will make its way right here," said Palmer, a Pensacola native who lived in Jacksonville for 10 years. "It could ruin all this, and that would be so sad."
But the gulf drilling issue is not quite that easy.
In fact, the question of whether to allow drilling in Florida's gulf waters reaches into matters as weighty as protecting an entire regional economy, developing a long-term international energy policy and sorting out a familial political squabble between Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and his brother in the White House.
Offshore oil drilling has been a point of contention between oil companies and Florida for more than 60 years. The state sold leases to oil companies in the 1940s but has never allowed the drilling and has repeatedly gone to court to protect its position, arguing that the risk of an oil spill and damage to the state's coastline outweighs the need for more oil and natural gas.
But this latest drilling proposal has generated a new and far more pressing debate.
The matter is being pushed forward due to support from the new president, growing fears of a domestic energy shortage and the expectation by energy companies that the gulf holds great stores of oil and natural gas. The government is expected to decide this fall whether to open the new lease area south of Pensacola to bidding that could eventually lead to drilling.
Those who support the drilling say it is a safe, clean way to extract much-needed oil from the earth, without the dangerous shipping of oil that has led to major disasters like the Exxon Valdez accident that marred the pristine Alaska coast. Piping oil from an offshore rig to a refinery on land is much safer than using ships to carry bulk oil across the oceans, supporters say.
Further, they argue, drilling in domestic waters could reduce America's reliance on foreign nations that hold much of the world's oil reserves.
"The technology that exists now is superior to anything in the past both in the way the oil is extracted, how it's piped to market and anything that would be permitted out there," said Cary Gaylord, a Tampa attorney who represents Coastal Petroleum, a company suing the state for the right to drill in the central and southern portions of the gulf. "If we don't do these things, we'll be at the mercy of governments around the world that provide us our oil."
To many who oppose drilling, however, the critical issue is not how the oil would be extracted, but where it would occur.
100-mile moratorium?
The proposed oil drilling site, known as Lease Sale 181, is a 5.9-million acre tract of gulf waters shaped like a square with a long, narrow portion sticking up to the north.
That narrow arm is causing much of the controversy because it stretches within 30 miles of Pensacola's coast.
For the past 19 years, Florida's congressional delegation has successfully blocked drilling by amending the annual federal budget bill to enact a moratorium on drilling in Florida waters within 100 miles of the coast. The other gulf states -- Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas -- have long allowed offshore drilling and are home to more than 3,800 oil wells in their gulf waters, according to the American Petroleum Institute.
Officials in those states say the drilling hasn't harmed their tourism and has only helped their economies.
Now some Florida officials say the president and Interior Secretary Gale Norton have found a way to legally skirt the moratorium.
When geologists pinpointed huge oil and natural gas stores in an area just south of Destin, the so-called Destin Dome became a target for energy companies that wanted to tap those resources.
The moratorium would not allow drilling so close to Florida's coasts, so energy companies were out of luck. But the part of Lease Sale 181 nearest to Florida wouldn't fall under the moratorium because it is located in Alabama state waters. By tapping into that portion of the lease site, energy companies could reach into the fringes of the Destin Dome.
U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., is leading an effort to block the drilling with a bill that would extend the moratorium to include area 181 and make it permanent. The measure also would enact a permanent moratorium on Atlantic drilling that would protect Jacksonville's ocean coastline.
Sen. Bill Nelson, also a Florida Democrat, joined Graham in condemning the drilling proposal. "We don't want waves of oil lapping up on our shores," he said. "We're going to give it everything we have to protect this wonderful paradise we call Florida."
Gov. Jeb Bush also has openly opposed his brother and Norton on the drilling proposal. He has written letters to both asking them to drop the idea.
"I think the great majority of Floridians do not want offshore drilling," Bush said last week.
Bush has said it doesn't make sense to ban drilling in Florida waters but then allow it so close to the state in area 181. He said any damage from oil spills in the lease area would certainly taint Florida's waters and coastline.
But why should Florida be any different than other gulf states that support the drilling?
That's an easy question for residents of the Panhandle coastal region who have traveled to Alabama, Texas and Louisiana and seen the coastlines there.
"People from those states come to Florida to vacation because their beaches are in such bad shape from oil wells, plastics manufacturers and other industry," said Tiana Burton, a spokeswoman for the Fort Walton Beach Sierra Club. "People here recognize that Panhandle beaches are some of the best in the world."
Still, other gulf states have not reported a drop-off in tourism related to oil drilling. Peggy Collins, a spokeswoman for the Division of Tourism and Travel in Alabama, said barring an oil spill, she can't imagine why anyone would care if there was offshore drilling.
"If there would be a spill, it would be a major problem, but I don't believe it's done anything negative to the tourist trade," she said. "They're way out there, and you can't see them, so I don't know what the problem is."
Oil and money
Energy industry officials insist their offshore oil operations are clean and environmentally safe. Statistics from the American Petroleum Institute show that from 1980 to 1999, the 3,800 oil platforms in the gulf have leaked less than a thousand barrels of oil, a 99.999 percent safety record.
The institute also notes that crude oil naturally bubbles up from the floor of the gulf at the rate of 120,000 barrels a year.
Plus, the institute points out in its literature, the offshore drilling provides the nation with billions of dollars in revenues in addition to the oil that is produced.
In the past 45 years, energy companies have paid $126 billion in severance payments, bidding fees and taxes directly to the states where the drilling takes place. In addition, the institute said offshore oil and gas drilling has since 1965 provided $20 billion to the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, which provides money to national parks and refuges among other things.
Gaylord, the attorney for Coastal Petroleum, said it is unfair of Florida to collect a disproportionately large share of that national park money and then demand there be no drilling off its coasts.
"Florida is taking the money on the one hand and on the other hand not participating in the project," Gaylord said. "It's a classic case of wanting to have your cake and eat it too."
Though the senators and congressmen moving to protect Florida's gulf waters said they have the votes to enact their bill, there is some dissent among Florida's congressional delegation.
U.S. Rep. John Mica, a Republican from Deltona, wrote to the governor in February to voice support of the drilling in area 181.
"Yes, we must protect the environment and develop alternative energy sources, but we must also plan for both short- and long-term energy needs," Mica wrote. "This sale would ensure a reliable and relatively affordable supply of natural gas to keep the state's economy going strong."
But U.S. Rep. Jim Davis, D-Tampa, said in an interview that the split in the delegation is minor and that there is wide, bipartisan support for the measure to protect Florida.
"This is an unacceptable risk, and it's a mistake to look to quick fixes like drilling in the gulf," Davis said, noting that a Brazilian oil rig collapsed and fell into the sea just last month. "It only takes one accident to do a lot of damage."
Tourism talks
And people who live along Florida's gulf coast are very protective of their own slice of the state economy, a multi-billion-dollar tourism industry that relies on clean water and clean sand.
Walton County, home to only a small piece of the Panhandle beaches just east of Destin, is a great example of how much this region relies on the gulf. The county recently completed a tourism economic impact study that revealed just how much money, jobs and tax revenue is generated by gulf coast tourism.
The survey found that Walton County alone draws 677,000 tourists a year, generating more than half the county's tax base and revenues. In all, those tourists dumped an estimated $307 billion into the Walton County economy in a recent year and provided about 7,300 jobs.
"Our main attraction is the beautiful white beaches and the gulf itself, and any threat to that kind of driver of our economy will not be well received," said Pam Tedesco, president of the Walton County Chamber of Commerce.
"I'm all for it in Alabama, but I'm against it here in Florida," said Edward Tisdale Sauls, 74, a native of Alabama who now lives in Pensacola. "In Alabama, the coastline is a swamp, and here it's a nice beach. Why do anything to mess that up?" |
