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Speak with one
voice: No Valdez in the Keys
Few can recall
anything that has united the Keys as has the opposition against oil
drilling in Gulf of Mexico waters because of the threat of a spill and
the environmental disaster that would be visited upon our islands.
Well, now we
must speak as a community even louder against an even greater threat:
Oil drilling in the Straits of Florida - conceivably no further from our
shores than halfway to Cuba.
That's
exactly what Fidel Castro is planning, as this newspaper reported a week
ago and reports again today - and as The New York Times and other
national media reported Tuesday.
Cuba has
long had plans to drill in the straits but the plans were never taken
seriously. But now, with fuel costs skyrocketed not only in the U.S. but
worldwide, Castro is moving aggressively to get drilling platforms just
off our islands.
The threat is very
real.
Castro has
locked up exploratory deals with companies operating out of countries
including India, China, Norway and Canada. One spill if the drilling
results in oil, and you can guarantee that the Gulf Stream would bring
the slick crude to our shores.
Remember
back to 1989, when the Exxon Valdez spilled off Alaska's Prince William
Sound and destroyed much of the environment, and changed much more of it
forever.
Now imagine a Keys
version of such a spill: Black tar roiling into Key West Harbor and into
inlets up the Keys; dead sealife and birds pocking our shores; fisheries
needed by commercial and recreational fishermen alike, gone.
Following
the Valdez spill, these islands united in opposition to Gulf drilling,
and for the most part, virtually all Floridians took, and continue to
take, the same stand.
U.S. Sen.
Bill Nelson and U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen have already filed
legislation that would keep Cuba from drilling through a complex
international agreement.
We must continue to
be loud in opposition to Gulf drilling, and we must now scream to keep
Cuba from drilling off the Keys. Lobby your lawmakers.
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U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
2160 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC
20515-0918
(202) 225-3931
or
9210 SW 72nd St., Suite 100
Miami, FL 33173
(305) 275-1800
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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson
716 Senate Hart Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-5274 |
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U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez
317 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-3041 |
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