No oil rigs at the Florida coasts!

One would imagine that the current oil flood in the Mexican Gulf next to the Louisiana shores and the frightening news of the environmental impact would have an impact on the advocates of the Florida offshore drilling. Not so! We did not hear any comment from the authors of the bill who presented the offshore drilling at the Florida legislation.

Luckily governor Crist did not sign it to enter into law and it is unlikely that he will under his tenure.

It is sad that it had to be a disastrous event for the wake up call.

Are there still supporters for drilling at the Florida coasts? The current catastrophe hopefully convinced even the hardcore supporters that this is a dangerous business where the outcome is unpredictable.

The pro drilling people say that we do not want to rely on foreign oil. Of course we wouldn’t if we had a choice. However even if we had a 100 more oil platform at the Florida shores, we would still need foreign oil. That would not change a dime of the current dependence. Consequently we would not solve any problem by opening for drilling. On the contrary: we would create an even bigger one!

They also say that drilling is safe. Sure. It is just demonstrated how safe it is.

Their next argument is: it brings “royalty fees” to Florida. Of course it does; which become to be peanuts compared to the damage what the drilling causes even without a disaster.

The White House communiqué indicated that new oil drilling will be permitted only once the necessary “safety measures” are in place. What does that mean in plain English?

Oil Companies were always obligated to operate under “safety measures” and with “contingency plans”. Where are those now? Where are the safety measures? Where is the “contingency plan”? By pouring in tons of poisoning chemicals to disperse the crude oil? Or by putting up the useless orange color “retaining booms” working only under calm weather conditions – which is not the case most of the time in the Gulf!

The fishermen are the ultimate defense at the shores of Louisiana! Not the Oil Companies. BP said that they are welcoming all help from any source. That’s good to know. But why didn’t they do something before? Their 2009 $4.9 billion profit did not make them possible to build in safety measures to their drilling platform at the Louisiana shore 1 mile deep at the ocean floor? They should have had a plan what happens when there is an accident! But they did not have a Plan! An estimated of 200,000 gallons of crude oil pours into the Gulf daily, however no one knows the real number. It can easily be twice as much. The oil sleek tripled in size just within 2 days and it threatens the entire coast line of Florida from the Panhandle to the East cost.

The unimaginable turned reality. “Safe” drilling does not exist. We either turn Florida to be an “Industrial Battlefield” or we want Florida to be a good place for living, a prime tourist destination for the rest of the nation and the rest of the World.

The choice is ours!

In the wake of this still-unfolding incident this would be the perfect time for the Florida lawmakers to postpone indefinitely plans for oil drilling operations at the Florida Coastlines!