Oil and Water Don't Mix

TARBALLS REPLACE BEACH BALLS ON NATURE COAST


CRIST GIVES UP FLIP-FLOPS FOR RUBBER BOOTS

These could very well be headlines in The Tribune if oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico were allowed. Governor Charlie Crist might find himself wearing hip-hugger rubber boots instead of his flip-flops.

Speculation has rationalized that this blatant political position is more in tune with that of Senator John McCain, looking out for himself and other party advocates hoping to make a bit of history on Election Day 2008.

You can’t blame Charlie. It’s not much different than the actions of a corporate subordinate interested in advancement within the organization. Politics is more so.

It’s surprising that the Governor is promoting offshore drilling. This is in conflict with his concern for the affects on the fishing industry facing limited down-flow water reserves from Georgia. The Florida Department of Environmentalist is suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for what would jeopardize sea life, namely sturgeon and a variety of mussels.

The economic impact of an oil spill would severely damage the $40M commercial fishing industry. The ecological impact of an oil spill is apparently less of a concern for the $65B revenue from tourism.

Scenarios can be manipulated to give the impression that the worst of possible disasters would not be as harmful as some believe. The problem is that the right conditions would create horrendous consequences to the State of Florida.

The EPA has stated there would be a 47% chance that an oil spill would reach the coast of Florida. Another forecast shows a decline of tourism revenue by 45% over a two-year period, not soon recovered. The risk factor is not on the right side of being earth-friendly or economic responsibility.

“Let gasoline hit $4 a gallon and the demand for more oil exploration is going to get pretty loud. Let gasoline hit $6 a gallon and I expect to see oilrigs going in within site of the expensive coastal houses owned by the rich – just like the oilrigs off Santa Barbara.”
This article in the Christian Science Monitor was followed with a statement that the platform lights are a spectacular sight in the dark of night. Romantic?

Just west of Pensacola, along the coasts of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas only 3,842 out of 7,500 leased drill sites are active. Local economies have chosen the benefits of jobs (58,000 in Louisiana alone) over concern of the trash and tar along their shores.

Hillsborough County employs over 50,000 tourism related jobs with $847M in wages. Pinellas County - 82,000 with $2.5B in wages. Santa Rosa County - 1300 jobs worth $21M annual wages. These figures do not reflect tax revenues that add to local economies.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed 115 oil platforms, ultimately spoiling the Gulf with more than 7M gallons of petroleum; the Exxon Valdez spilled 11M gallons. And yet the industry wants us to believe technology over the past three years has lessened the dangers of future spills.

On their own, birds can’t recover. Sea life has no chance of surviving. The same fate applies to all wildlife and vegetation along coastlines. Within a year of the Exxon Valdez, beaches were clean enough for humans to frequent but natural habitats will take up to 30 years to recover.

Offshore waters of Texas and Louisiana are already polluted with two decades of runoffs of farm fertilizers, originating as far north as the Minnesota River emptying in the Mississippi River, with every other tributary contributing to the pollution on its way to the Gulf.

This “dead zone” covers over 8,000 square miles, expected to grow to 10,000 in the next few years. No life can exist in these oxygen-depleted waters. Global warming will accelerate the expansion. The dead zone is forever.

Superimposed maps show that oilrig sites and the dead zone overlap. Congress is considering canceling nearly 4,000 tracts for resale to companies that will fulfill the purpose of the leases. Better there than along the Florida coast. There would be no significant change in the cost of petroleum products. Oil exploration would be nothing other than negative for Florida.

No, it’s not likely Gov. Crist will be wearing rubber boots. His popularity has a one-year approval adjustment from 73% to 59%. His pre-election promises may be left behind as he gains national prominence. In which case, he wouldn’t need rubber boots, as he would take his flip-flops along with his aspirations to Washington, wearing a pair of shoes made from the hides of alligators dead from tarballs floating in the Everglades.