Stop Florida Oil Drilling Deal

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SFLDiver

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Passing on this important info from a friend of mine involved in the Surfrider Foundation.

Stop Florida Oil Drilling Deal

The House of Representatives voted for a bill HR 4761 that would lift the 25-year moratorium on oil and gas drilling off some of our country's most fragile coasts, including Florida. A U.S. Senate Republican “compromise” on Florida drilling could be voted on between now and July 29. This “compromise” will allow the Senate and House to start moving on a joint bill to open up the entire east and west coasts of the U.S. to new oil and gas drilling. Tell your Senator to vote No and protect our beaches and coastal waters and encourage investment in cleaner and cheaper energy solutions by using the subsidy that is given to the oil industry.

Sign their online petition and get more info at:
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/florida_oilbill

Opening our coasts to destructive drilling would do little to lower prices at the gas pump, but it would threaten our beaches with pollution and potential oil spills. An offshore spill could easily be carried by ocean currents to neighboring states, with disastrous results. Tourism, property, and commercial and sport fishing wrecked in the wake of a huge oil slick could impair millions of jobs and weaken our coastal economies.

Here a couple of key reasons why Senator Martinez' bill is flawed:
1) Fails to terminate 98 non-producing offshore drilling leases already in place along Florida's Gulf Coast and Panhandle.
2) Gives the green light to accelerated offshore drilling plans in the Lease Sale 181 area off of Florida's Gulf Coast, calling for the first of a series of lease sales there within one year after the date of enactment of the Martinez drilling bill.
3) Within a proposed 125-mile zone of protection off of Florida's Gulf Coast, promised by the Martinez bill language to be set aside until 2022, any subsequent session of Congress could rescind the protection at any time, and this area could then be included for leasing in any future Five-Year OCS Leasing Program prepared by the Minerals Management Service.
4) No protection for any other coastal state is included in the bill language.
5) Substantial federal budget deficit increases would result from this language. The details remain unclear, and much of the cost is hidden beyond the budget window, but the proposal will certainly cost tens of billions of dollars over the next several decades.
6) No protection whatever is provided by this bill for Florida's Atlantic coast.
7) The Martinez bill, were it to pass the Senate, would clear the way for adoption in a House-Senate Conference Committee of parts or all of the House-passed Pombo drilling bill, HR 4761, with drastic impacts on all coastal states, including removal of 25-years of bipartisan congressional moratorium protections and rescission, nationwide, of all executive leasing withdrawals.

We simply do not need to sacrifice our beaches and coastal waters to meet America's energy needs. Cleaner, faster and less expensive energy solutions like energy efficiency and clean, renewable energy could start saving consumers and businesses money today and protect our beaches, marine waters and coastal economies.
 
I'll tell mine how I'd like her to vote, but she won't listen.
 
SFLDiver:
We simply do not need to sacrifice our beaches and coastal waters to meet America's energy needs. Cleaner, faster and less expensive energy solutions like energy efficiency and clean, renewable energy could start saving consumers and businesses money today and protect our beaches, marine waters and coastal economies.

While I would like to jump on the "Save the Beaches" bandwagon, your arguement is VERY flawed...
Solar and wind power costs more per KW hour....and we should move toward these sources ASAP, but the infustructer is not there to meet the demand for the move TODAY
Hydrogen powered Autos....best move we could make, but it would take 20+ years to build Hydrogen filling stations throughout the country.

Let us pump our Oil NOW and also start the move towards our alterative sources
 
Actually, I'm ok with them drilling in the gulf.
 
ReefGuy:
Actually, I'm ok with them drilling in the gulf.

Oil platforms in the Gulf(there are plenty off the coasts of AL, MS, LA, TX) make for great artificial reefs to dive/fish.
 
My thoughts exactly. They're a lot closer than LA. I'm actually looking forward to diving them!

SuPrBuGmAn:
Oil platforms in the Gulf(there are plenty off the coasts of AL, MS, LA, TX) make for great artificial reefs to dive/fish.
 
How many active wells has anyone hit on a diving trip, and how many times? I guess I've been missing out on something...
 
Hmmm...jobs, reduced dependence on foreign imported oil, structure where there IS no structure, what is the down side here? Pollution surely is no longer a legitimate complaint with todays spill abatement technologies already in place, and anyone with more than one brain cell can see that being dependent on our "friends" in the Middle East is a poor plan. What can we do to help them get started tomorrow?
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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