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Crist Calls For Special Sesson To Seek Oil Drilling Ban
July 8, 2010
Calling it too important to leave to his successor, Gov. Charlie Crist called Thursday for a special session to ask voters to ban oil drilling off Florida’s coast – even though he doesn’t have buy-in from the House on the issue.
Crist’s call for lawmakers to return to town July 20 likely sets up a standoff with the Legislature – particularly the House – over the matter. Crist’s proposed amendment has a Senate sponsor, but so far nobody to carry the bill in the House.
Officially, Crist called for a four-day session to craft and pass a proposed constitutional ban on oil and gas exploration in state waters. If he can get it through the Legislature, it would go on the ballot in November for voter approval.
“I think it’s important that we put this into our constitution,” Crist told reporters at a hastily scheduled news conference. “Certainly, I think it’s important that we give the people of Florida the opportunity to make this call.”
Crist has been suggesting that lawmakers should return to propose a constitutional ban for several weeks, since not long after the April 20 explosion of the BP Deepwater Horizon rig that led to the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.
But with nearshore oil drilling already barred by a moratorium and no appetite in the wake of the spill to push for new drilling, House leaders have resisted. Several have said that Crist has been posturing – seeking the constitutional ban for political reasons. Crist is running for the U.S. Senate.
If a constitutional ban is to be put on the ballot by the Legislature, it has to be done soon. The deadline for getting a measure approved for the November ballot is the end of the day, Aug. 3.
Crist said he didn’t want to wait any longer to address the issue.
“I feel a compelling duty to protect Florida,” Crist said. “I’m going to be governor for about six more months and I think I would not be doing my duty as governor if I didn’t call for this special session.”
Crist said other issues arising from the spill could wait.
“This is a rifle shot,” Crist said of the narrow legislative call.
Several lawmakers have said there are other issues resulting from the spill that could require attention, most specifically the drop in property values expected along the Gulf coast.
Opponents of a constitutional ban say the existing moratorium on drilling in the Gulf makes a constitutional ban unnecessary, at least immediately. The argument is that lawmakers could easily pass a proposed amendment next March during the regular session.
Crist, who is running for Senate with no party affiliation and has been at odds with the Republican Legislature on several issues in the last few months , said he thinks the drilling prohibition needs to be stronger because future Legislatures could easily lift the ban.
“I know it’s barred statutorily, l but I also know that just last year they tried to change that statute and drill holes three miles off the coast of Florida,” Crist said. “That’s why … the will of the people should be heard on this.”
In order to put the issue on the November ballot, the proposal must be approved by the three-fifths of the House and Senate. To pass, it must then garner 60 percent of the popular vote.
Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, generally supports a ban. Incoming House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, has opposed a constitutional ban.
The proposal will be sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami.
While Republicans have resisted a special session, Democrats have been pushing for one and praised Crist for it on Thursday.
“I commend the governor for agreeing to call for a special session to ban near beach oil drilling, despite the resistance from special interests and some members of the Legislature,” said state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, the Democratic candidate for governor. But she and other Democrats urged Crist and lawmakers to take on other issues as well.
“In addition to banning near beach drilling, the special session should also tackle the urgent needs for our business owners and state, including much-needed small business relief, a more streamlined claims process, and the creation of an environmental endowment for additional research,” Sink said.
With criticism expected that he was grandstanding, or calling the special session to boost his Senate campaign, Crist said the issue was of paramount importance, and it was a simple call.
“The rightness of this is so clear, especially with what we have experienced in the past 80 days or so in the Gulf of Mexico,” Crist said. “This is an issue that is so important to the future our state, to the economy of Florida.”
Comments
14 Responses to “Crist Calls For Special Sesson To Seek Oil Drilling Ban”
The governor is playing on the emotions of the public for political gain.
REGARDING:
“we should put all we have into doing so as soon as possible. I don’t believe it’s only one solution but many.”
I agree there are many solutions.
I doubt you actually want us to “put all we have” on finding them. Some of what we have is money for food, clothes and shelter. We want to keep at least some of that, don’t we?
Should we take all the money in Medicare and put it in alternative energy research and development? I didn’t think so.
Should we take all the money in social security, and in defense and in road maintenance and in law enforcement and put it in alternative energy research and development? I didn’t think so.
I know it sounds like mockery, but don’t intend it as such.
I’m just trying to remind that we have many needs, demands and desires. We try to come up with some sort of balance. I’ve already pointed out that there are trade-offs in many of the proposed alternatives.
They displace natural habitat. Imagine if your alternative energy source were plant based. You would have to get rid of the other plants already there or cut them down for your energy.
They displace food producing crops. Just think of how the addition of more ethanol in gasoline raised the price of corn, resulting in food riots in Mexico and probably increased the drug trafficking and kidnappings and murders and illegal immigration. It cost you more but you don’t live as close to the edge of starvation as some people
They are also dangerous. Consider the dead coal miners. Imagine working with millions of tons of rock over you wanting to fall and crush you. Brrrrr! The alternative is strip mining, getting the rock out from above you but we don’t like the environmental damage associated with that either, do we?
They are unsightly. We could replace much of the energy demand in this country if we just put up wind turbines along the beaches or out in the shallow water. Most people don’t want to look at them. (They don’t like looking at oily beaches either, but that is temporary and will be gone in a few months or decades, whereas wind turbines would be forever even if they had to be replaced every so often.)
They WILL cost more. I know people act like they don’t care what anything costs, but they really do. If it cost five times as much to replace petroleum as petroleum does, it would be like instantly earning one fifth as much as you did before. You would have less money for clothes. Less money for food. Less money for going places. Less money for medicine. Your loved ones would have to do without.
Just think about it.
Right now, it’s all about profit margins!
We need to look at the bigger picture and look at what’s best for our county.
No, we will not be able to get rid our dependence on oil overnight but we should put all we have into doing so as soon as possible. I don’t believe it’s only one solution but many.
Keep saying it will not work, will never get us no wheres!
As the old saying goes ” Can’t never does anything”!!!!
If lobbyists keep us tied to oil, does that mean there are lobbyists controlling every last nation and corporation on Earth?
If ANY were not under their thumb and had a better way, they would leave all the others behind. Therefore, if every last one was not under their thumb and it still doesn’t happen, that means they are not the cause.
The fact is that petroleum–inexpensive, compact, liquid, non-clogging, portable energy–is superior to all current alternatives. It’s better than coal and safer to obtain with less pollution. It’s more portable than nuclear and not quite as dangerous in the hands of terrorists. It packs more punch and more power per cubic foot than natural gas even though it doesn’t burn as cleanly. It doesn’t depend on moving wind, dammed up waters or shining sun to serve its users. It’s not made out of food even though it can be used to produce food.
It won’t always be that way but it is right now.
There are fungi which produce diesel, not bio-diesel but diesel.
There are algae which produce fuel (around a hundred dollars per gallon but they’re working on improving that).
If you had an affordable battery or even any kind of such battery which was about a hundred times as efficient at storing energy (as petroleum is), most transportation would switch to it quickly. You’d still have to have some source of power but they exist.
Conversion of cellulose to ethanol works well as soon as they get the bugs out or the right bugs working on the problem. You’d only have about half the energy density per cubic foot, but that would do for a lot of cases.
There are plants which naturally produce heptane, low grade gasoline. A little genetic engineering could go a long way. There are chemical compounds which are stable, high energy density and liquid. They could replace petroleum if they were made by plants rather than expensive laboratories with high energy losses and expense. You could run engines on turpentine, peanut oil, syrup (well, maybe). Of course they would destroy the ecology as they displaced naturally existing plants, but at least we would be off of petroleum.
There are some people all around the world working on all these problems and others I haven’t thought to mention. They write papers back and forth working on the problems and share them with each other.
Lobbyists couldn’t stop all of them. Lobbyists don’t control China or Iceland or South Africa or Argentina or Switzerland or Denmark. Just think of the places and peoples they don’t control. I don’t even think they control the United States of America but even if they did, they just couldn’t possibly control all those other folks. If any of them found a better way, they would have the rest of the world following them. Nobody likes to be dependant on petroleum.
David trying to be reasonable
in the face of conspiracy theorists
Looking at the bigger picture means, looking to other sources of energy. It’s the play of lobbyist and politics that keeps us soooo tied to Oil!!
Yeah, we wouldn’t want to create any new jobs, now would we mr crist? Until we come up with viable and practical alternatives, we must continue to use oil. Unless we drill close to home, we are at the mercy of the foreign oil peddlers. Maybe mr crist should look at the BIG picture, rather than his floundering political career.
Not a Liberal !!! Totally against drilling in the Gulf!
We must do better, than old thinking!
REGARDING:
“americans are fighters, we are world leaders, we are inovative, we are strong. we can do it. we can leave a healthy, oil free future for our kids and grandbabies.”
As a loft goal, it’s just fine.
In the mean time, if our kids and grandkids (or parents and grandparents, depending on age) need to get to the hospital, shall we use petroleum based fuel to run the ambulence or not? Should we give up the food and clothing which is brought to us by vehicles powered withpetroleum based fuel? For that matter, unless they are 100 percent cotton our clothes are made from petroleum and the cotton was raised and harvested and processed with petroleum based products.
“We can do it because we are AMERICANS!” sounds fine until you get down to the details.
With what shall we do it, Dear Liza, Dear Liza?
With what shall we do it, with what?
David for practical alternatives
ART…are you that man i see walking to work every morning? …doing your part?
The Cubans and Mexicans are going to drill….
BP…British NOT American…did this…
Sorry Charlie,
This just another “Hug From The Liberals Seeking Move” on Charlie’s part.
Charlie you know you can’t stop Cuba
*** source Seattle Times****
“People say they (Cuba) can’t or shouldn’t do it (drill for oil). Well, forget it,” Jones said.
“It is going to happen, and you guys in Florida can’t stop it, and the U.S. government can’t stop it, but you’d better think of a way to deal with it.”
Zones established by maritime law in 1977 gave the United States and Cuba special rights of exploration and navigation in the Florida Straits. (Thank You Panama Jimmy Carter)
The boundary of Cuba’s Exclusive Economic Zone extends to within 45 miles of Key West. The parcels within the zone that Cuba has leased for drilling are along Cuba’s northwest coast — about 65 miles south of Key West.
By comparison, the Deepwater Horizon well, as much of a concern as it is to South Florida officials, is 800 miles away. Oil from a spill off Cuba could much more quickly enter the Florida Straits and blanket the Keys and South Florida as it is pulled north on the Gulf Stream”
get rid of everone in the house that doenst support gov crist on this one. when bush was president he said we were addicted to petroleum products. the sooner we shut it all down the better. the withdrawal will be hard, but dammit, americans are fighters, we are world leaders, we are inovative, we are strong. we can do it. we can leave a healthy, oil free future for our kids and grandbabies.
Might as well keep drilling the gulf and beachs are trashed , now they can be as careless as they want, whats the worst that could happen
Once the beaches are all black you wont have a reason to complain
AT WHAT COST.?….for a few POLITICAL POINTS…. the state is already on a shoe sting budget, AND God only know how the LOST TAXES from people staying away from Florida because of the Oil spill.
DO NOT VOTE FOR THE IDIOT! through the Bum out.
58% of Americans still suport Gulf drilling… I don’t know anyone who wants to walk to work! AND I do not want to support the Arabs, Castro OR Chaves…DRILL BABY DRILL!
Native Floridian HERE! …
REGARDING:
“too important to leave to his successor”
He doesn’t think we’ll pick a good successor? Oh he of little faith.