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Senators press for drilling off Florida Florida senators want drilling farther from state’s coast; Senate resource committee leadership wants drilling 50 miles closer By H. Josef Hebert Associated Press Writer
Florida senators sought on Feb. 16 to scale back oil and gas drilling plans for a part of the Gulf of Mexico, hoping to push development farther from the state’s coast.
But the Republican chairman and top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee indicated they would press ahead with legislation that would open more of the area to gas development at least 50 miles closer to Florida.
“The ocean belongs to the United States of America,” said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. The legislation, he said, would bar drilling within 100 miles of the Florida coast.
Proponents of the exploration say the area offers the best chance for significant new natural gas production in the next five years.
The bill by Domenici and Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., would require the Interior Department to begin selling leases for oil and gas development in the “181 area” of the central gulf within a year.
Earlier in February, the department said it planned to offer leases in the area beginning next year as part of its next five-year plan for offshore oil development. MMS starting 18-month process Elaborating on the proposal at the Senate hearing Feb. 16, the head of the Minerals Management Agency said the agency was starting an 18-month process toward such lease sales.
Even so, Johnnie Burton said any actual production from the area probably was four years or five years away. She said the 2 million acres considered for leasing are believed to contain 930 million barrels of oil and 6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas — enough gas to heat 6 million homes for 15 years.
Florida’s senators, Republican Mel Martinez and Democrat Bill Nelson, are fighting the department’s plan and the Senate legislation.
Martinez offered what he viewed as a compromise: allowing development of a smaller portion of the area, no closer than 150 miles off the Florida coast.
Domenici said he would work with Martinez, but gave no indication he was interested in scaling back his proposal.
Martinez acknowledged that the area being considered for drilling is a considerable distance from land. But, he said, “Three years from now will they move east, will they move north and threaten Florida’s coast?” Florida wants drilling farther out Nelson and Martinez are sponsoring legislation that would keep drilling 150 miles from the Florida Panhandle and 260 miles from the west coast of the state’s peninsula. Rep. Jim Davis, D-Tampa, filed the same bill in the House on Feb. 16.
Three other Democratic representatives from Florida are co-sponsoring it: Alcee Hastings of Miramar, Allen Boyd of Monticello and Corrine Brown of Jacksonville.
Some Florida lawmakers have criticized the legislation, saying it gives up too much or isn’t as strong as a couple of failed proposals that many House Republicans supported last year. Those were opposed by Democrats and Martinez. One version would have allowed drilling 125 miles from Florida beaches and another would have put it at 150 miles.
Davis, also a candidate for governor, said he had hoped for more co-sponsors but wanted to get something filed quickly before lawmakers left Washington for a 10-day break to counteract the pro-drilling moves in the Senate and by the Interior Department. Drilling off Virginia also possible The government’s leasing plan would, for the first time, open the possibility of oil and gas development off the Virginia coast. That would happen only if Congress and the state agreed on lifting the current freeze on energy development.
There is a growing movement in Congress for legislation that would allow states to seek an exemption from the drilling freeze in place for almost all coastal waters outside the western Gulf of Mexico. The 181 area is not under the freeze and Virginia officials have expressed an interest in getting out of it.
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said he was worried drilling off Virginia would create a “domino effect” that would lead to energy development and the potential threat of oil spills elsewhere along the Atlantic coast
“Our beaches are just too precious to play Russian roulette with,” said Menendez.
Menendez and Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer of California are planning bills to bar development in their state’s coastal waters.
Burton said environmental risks from offshore development can be minimized. “There has not been a significant platform spill in the last 35 years” including during hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year, when production was shut down before the storms hit.
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