Oil lobbyists promote Fl. Offshore drilling

Lobbyists waging a campaign in Tallahassee to lift the state’s ban on offshore oil drilling may not want Florida Legislators and citizens looking at some recent events. On August 5th, the U.S. Coast Guard reported that a crack in the Eugene Island pipeline off the shore of Louisiana spilled 63,000 gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico before it was skimmed up or dispersed. The graphic you see is a scenario based on the Eugene Island pipeline leak, which ultimately created an 80 square mile oil slick. The map overlay illustrates a hypothetical 80 square mile oil slick impacting Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach, assuming an oil spill source 10 miles offshore, a southeast current and wind blowing from the west.

Down under, the West Atlas blow out and oil spill off Western Australia began spilling millions of liters of oil on August 21, covering 5,800 square miles of the Timor Sea. During the fourth attempt to plug the leak on November 1st, the modern state of the art rig burst into flames.

The U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service (MMS) oversees the oil and gas industry. According to the MMS, there were five spills of over 50 barrels of oil in the Gulf last year. There were four in 2007 and 14 in 2006. Hurricane Katrina destroyed over 100 platforms, creating the largest oil spill in the U.S. since the Exxon Valdez. Hurricane Rita destroyed 11 platforms for a combined total (Katrina and Rita) of 124 destroyed platforms and 741,000 gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spills database indicates that the Gulf of Mexico tops the list of regions in the world with the most oil pollution.

Florida legislators will deliberate on a fast track measure to alllow oil drilling off the coast of Florida during the upcoming legislative session. Is this what you want?

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