Feds give control of Fla. waters to Louisiana

[seafan]

Feds give control of Fla. waters to Louisiana

Change in jurisdiction could lead to drilling in the eastern Gulf

By WILL ROTHSCHILD and JEREMY WALLACE
January 7, 2006


Weeks before the Bush administration releases a new offshore drilling plan for the Gulf of Mexico, a federal agency has given Louisiana authority over waters as close as 100 miles from Florida's coastline.

While the full impact isn't yet clear, the new boundaries position Louisiana as the primary stakeholder over millions of acres of waters Florida has historically controlled in the eastern Gulf, including an area south of the Panhandle, that is not currently protected from drilling.

That area, known as Lease Sale Area 181, could be included in the Interior Department's 2007-2012 offshore drilling plan, which is expected to be released this month.
The new boundaries could be used to determine which state has the power to decide whether to allow offshore drilling in those waters. It also could mean that state collects all the revenues from the drilling lease.

snip

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., called the move a "thinly veiled act" designed to open a huge portion of the eastern Gulf to oil drilling and vowed to fight it.

"Nelson said today he'll do everything possible, including new specific legislation, to block Interior Secretary Gale Norton from carrying out the oil industry's agenda over the wishes of the people of Florida and many other coastal states," Nelson spokesman Dan McLaughlin said in a statement.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060107/NEWS/601070503/1017/POLITICS

[RagingInMiami]

1. So Jeb can have his cake and eat it to

Fucker.

[Auntie Bush]

6. Huh..please explain.

I seemed to me Jeb got screwed. :shrug: He gets oil drilling off his coast and a danger of oil spills on Panhandle beaches...but Louisiana will get the profits. How is he getting his cake and eating it too?
Maybe I'd better go read that again.

[RagingInMiami]

7. First of all, he won't look like a political sellout to Floridians

But he also belongs to the Bush crime family, who always seem to profit from oil drilling.

[Auntie Bush]

8. Well I certainly agree with this statement

"But he also belongs to the Bush crime family, who always seem to profit from oil drilling." I wondered about that myself?
:shrug:

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Jeb isn't originally from Florida. He's almost done with this state.

He doesn't really care what happens to the future of Florida. He can now say, oh, shucks we were screwed. And then give a wink, wink, nudge, nudge to an oil drilling company which will probably offer him his next job.

[ktlyon]

13. he is a lame duck what does he care

anyway he can play the victim

[seafan]

2. The Bushites know they'll never succeed without cheating.

The Minerals Management Service, a part of the Interior Department, was assigned to draw the lines. A spokesman said the lines were drawn to determine which states control the waters for alternative energy projects. But he said the Interior Department has the authority to use them in its drilling plan.

"When the (Interior) secretary decides the next five-year plan, it would be up to her if she wanted to use these lines," Gary Strasburg said. "If she wants to use them, she can, but for our purposes we had some other issues come up that we need to define."

snip

The boundaries are similar to ones Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu proposed last summer for the new federal energy bill. It was one of a handful of efforts following Hurricane Katrina designed to weaken Florida's opposition to offshore drilling that Nelson and other Florida lawmakers defeated.


snip

"We know we have some big battles looming on the horizon, and they keep nipping away at Florida," said Mark Ferrulo, director of the Florida Public Interest Research Group. "It could be death by a thousand cuts."


And this is buried deep on a late Saturday afternoon on the day Tom Delay is getting all the attention.

[aquart]

3. Well, the destruction of Florida's resources and environment

Will cause population to relocate, causing a loss of electoral value.

Short-sighted policies are the only ones Republicans have.

[pitohui]

4. we're willing to drill, florida isn't

it's quite a bit offshore and if they're actually going to give louisiana revenues from the lease, fine, i'm all for it

we need the money, we need the work, we need the oil & gas

so where's the problem? i guess in florida everyone is a big rich millionaire retiree who doesn't need a job and doesn't care what he pays for natural gas but why should they be able to tie it up for everybody when it isn't even on their property?

a federal agency has given Louisiana authority over waters as close as 100 miles from Florida's coastline.

100 miles from florida's coastline, hell, sounds like it shoulda been ours all along

[iamjoy]

14. State's Rights!

This is why it shouldn't be a state thing, but a federal thing. What happens in waters 100 miles from Florida's coast DOES affect Floridians. We are not all millionaires, but we rely heavily on tourism. IF there is an accident or spill, it could drift into "our" waters and contaminate our beaches, thus, ruining the natural beauty that brings tourists here and boosts our economy. There are some who say our economy shouldn't be so service based since these jobs tend to pay poorly, but a bill like this we wouldn't even benefit from any of the revenue and jobs that may be created.

It would almost be like saying why couldn't New Jersey legislature pass laws that allow factories and power plants in their state to ignore federal emissions regulations. New Yorkers would have kittens. But, by your logic, why should New Yorkers have any say about what happens in New Jersey?

[pitohui]

16. so it appears to be a federal decision, yet people are objecting

not quite following your argument

the feds have re-drawn the map according to this story, i don't see anything that suggests we suddenly got our own navy here in louisiana and seized the area personally

the resources are offshore louisiana and not offshore florida, which is 100 miles away, it sounds like the map was never right to begin with and this is correcting an old error

the problem is--? what exactly?

the new york/new jersey analogy makes no sense to me, it's apples and oranges, in your analogy new jersey takes away something from new york, but according to this news story, the federal authorities decided the area belonged to louisiana, true, on suggestion of landrieu but it all sounds quite proper and on the up and up to me

nothing to do w. states' rights and in any case i thought the civil war was settled that matter

[iamjoy]

19. Authority Was Given To Louisiana

And I'm saying since that water affects Florida, those waters should be under federal authority. Loisiana shouldn't get to decide what happens in those waters, which is what it sounds like will happen. In other words, the Federal govt should decide whether or not they drill (not that I really trust the Federal govt)

The "State's Rights" is the attitude that it is Louisiana's waters, LA can do whatever they want with it and to heck with everyone else.

[RC]

5. I wonder what Mississippi, Alabama & Georgia think about this?

[countmyvote4real]

11. Georgia doesn't have a Gulf coast. n/t

[RC]

12. oops

:blush:

[pitohui]

17. apparently mississippi don't want to drill either

but they really don't have a very long coastline

don't know the story on alabama

georgia, which has no gulf coastline, had a severe shortage of gas through its pipeline after katrina and i suspect they would strongly support anything that keeps oil and gas supply moving up north to georgia

[seasat]

10. The problem with 100 miles offshore is the loop current.

Simulations have shown that the loop current could catch a spill that close to shore and carry it down over the already beleaguered Florida Keys. With eutrophication, global warming, and changes in flow patterns, the reefs are already a shadow of what they once were. A spill carried in the loop current could also get caught in the Gulf Stream and end up on the East Coast beaches. This is typical of the scientific ignorance or arrogance of Shrub Inc.

[pitohui]

15. look

we're gonna drill the northern gulf of mexico with or without florida

it has nothing to do w. ignorance, spills happen, they will continue to happen, and we need to keep aggressively pursuing tech to contain and clean up spills, no question abt that

nonetheless we can't just give up drilling the northern gulf of mexico because there are tourists in florida, guess what, there are tourists in louisiana too, there are tourists everywhere on the planet by this time of century

i mean, be serious, is there anyWHERE a certain element would allow us to drill? anyWHERE at all except maybe overseas in iraq

we can't yowl abt dependence on foreign oil out of one side of the mouth and then refuse to drill our own damn oil out of the other side of our mouth

we've sat on a lot of usa oil and natural gas a long time, waiting for the price to go up, well, the price has gone up, the oil and gas is economic, so it's going to be drilled and, as i said above, if florida can't compromise on this issue, when the resources are not even in the state of florida, then leave 'em out of the revenues

we need the cash if others don't and plenty of old people need cheaper gas if florida doesn't

one state shouldn't be able to tie up valuable resources for everybody

[Delphinus]

18. How in the world ... ?

Louisiana isn't all that close to Florida - why not give it to Georgia?! This is screwy.