It started with President Bush , who pushed congress to lift a 27 year ban on offshore drilling. Actually, it started 20 years ago in Key West, when citizens formed a drilling ban symbol on the beach to protest drilling for oil and natural gas in Keys Gulf waters. Florida has always had a strong citizen voice against drilling for oil. Since tourism is the economic powerhouse of Florida, opposition to drilling has always been strong enough to keep the rigs away.
Not so in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, where there are rigs close enough to be visible from the beaches. In fact, in the western Gulf of Mexico, there are 4,000 platforms dotting the map. There are no rigs off the coast of Florida.
Since 2008, this is starting to change. That's when Senator McCain switched his position on offshore drilling and joined the call for lifting the ban. And since McCain changed, so did Governor Christ. And the public is changing its tune, too. Since gas hit the $4 per gallon benchmark a few years ago, there is less public outcry at possibilities of lifting the offshore moratorium.
According to one report I read, lifting the ban means drilling for oil and natural gas could take place as close as 3 to 10 miles from the shores of Key West!
Drilling in the eastern Gulf may yield as much as 3.6 billion barrels of oil. That's as much as the United States uses in just six months. We could potentially ruin our marine ecosystem for six months of being able to continue to guzzle gas.
Alabama has been allowing drilling in its offshore waters since the early 1980s. Natural gas generates $500 million a year in state revenue. They even pipe their natural gas to us in Florida. Many citizens in Gulf states where drilling is allowed consider the drilling part of their duty, as in they are "doing their part".
How about doing your part to protect the marine environment?
