Nelson Vows To Filibuster Drilling Bill
Good. Exploiting domestic oil sources may seem like a fine idea in the abstract, but if the derricks start appearing off the coast of Florida, neither residents nor tourists will be happy.
The bill would end a 25-year ban on drilling off much of the U.S. coastline. It could bring rigs as close as 50 miles from Florida’s beaches.
Rising fuel prices have increased support for drilling in environmentally sensitive areas. The bill last week cleared the House Resources Committee 29-9 with bipartisan support.
Nelson and all seven of Florida’s House Democrats oppose the measure. They’re joined by Florida’s Republican Senator, Mel Martinez, and at least four of the state’s 18 House Republicans.
Could it be that the whole concept of Not In My Back Yard will push us toward serious investment in alternative energy sources?
June 27th, 2006 at 1:07 pm
I seriously doubt they will be within eyesight of the Florida coast, but I do think there are plenty of areas in the international waters of the Gulf that aren’t being tapped by us, but are being tapped by Mexico and other countries that aren’t restricting their oil companies. I also hope they will tap into the Anwar reserves. Yes, alternative enrgy sources are the future but we need a source to bridge the gap.
I said it before, but I truly think biofuels (particularly ethanol) are the best. Think of the benefits for our ag economy if we put more resource towards it.
June 27th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
Bottom Line, I’m not as familiar with biofuels as I should be, but I had read some things that indicated they were pretty resource-intensive to produce (especially from corn). I know Brazil uses ethanol derived from sugar cane, but I don’t know if that requires more resources than corn. I do think that if we start to tap short-term reserves like ANWAR that we will permanently destroy some areas for a dubious gain. Plus, with the arctic melting it would probably be extremely difficult to get oil now - no permafrost on which to build roads or pipelines. Maybe we could grow biofuels in the arctic?