April 27, 2009
FLORIDA'S SENATOR NELSON OPPOSED TO OFFSHORE DRILLING BILL
We thought you’d like to know what Florida’s U.S. Senator Bill Nelson has to say about the Florida State Legislature’s offshore oil drilling bill. Here is the senator’s statement:
Sen. Nelson won passage in the U.S. Senate a few years ago of a measure to keep offshore drilling some 125 miles from Florida’s Panhandle and 235 miles away from most of Florida's west coast until at least 2022. But just recently, some members of the Florida Legislature decided they want to allow oil rigs within a three- to 10-mile range offshore -- where the state and not the federal government controls the waters.
Sen. Nelson feels there’s no good reason for undoing coastal protections wisely put, and kept, in place by Govs. Graham, Chiles and Bush -- and, hopefully, Crist. These protections have spared our state’s economy and environment from the ravages of industrializing and degrading our coastline.
Those who now propose to allow drilling and refineries know full well their plan will do nothing to reduce energy prices or our country’s reliance on oil. This simply is the agenda of big-oil interests hiding behind advocacy groups seeking to control Florida’s lawmaking.
And if all that’s not enough, consider the national security implications. Even the new underwater drilling technology would encroach upon military ranges out in the Gulf of Mexico, where we have the last unencumbered places to train our fighter pilots.
PURRE Water Coalition
13300-56 So. Cleveland Ave., Suite 256
Ft. Myers, FL 33907
239.274.7873, fax 239.275.7872
info@purre.org; www.purre.org
