Oil drilling bill passes in Congress

By Kevin Wadlow Senior Staff Writer kwadlow@keynoter.com

A Congressional vote to allow oil drilling in a new area of the Gulf of Mexico took local conservationists by surprise this month.

The measure was attached to a federal budget bill, passed at 2 a.m. Dec. 7, after earlier attempts by Congress to allow increased gulf drilling stalled.

While the 8 million acres in Lease Sale 181 lie in the northern gulf, effects still could be felt in the Florida Keys, said DeeVon Quirolo of Reef Relief.

“Further efforts will be needed to monitor this issue and continue to resist efforts to open up Florida to tarballs on our beaches and oil slicks on our mangroves and coral reefs,” Quirolo wrote in an action alert to Reef Relief members.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, representing Miami and the Florida Keys, was the only Florida Republican to vote against the measure.

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives were pushing for more widespread gulf drilling, including to within 50 miles of Florida's coast.

The U.S. Senate also wanted more drilling, but favored a more restrictive plan forwarded by Florida Senators Mel Martinez and Bill Nelson.

House members continued to hold out for their version, so the measure stalled. Then in November, Democrats won large gains in Congress.

The House then agreed to back the Senate plan in order to achieve some success.

Under the action, drilling would be permitted in an area 125 miles south of the Panhandle. Rigs would be barred 235 miles off Tampa and about 325 miles from Naples.

Martinez told the Miami Herald that the sizable distance from the peninsula provides the best protection Florida was likely to get.

The Monroe County Commission and the Key West City Council were among groups urging caution on expansion of gulf drilling.