US protects Florida beaches, park from drilling
Date: 30-May-02
Country: USA
Author: Arshad Mohammed
The moves will likely help the Republican governor, who is up for re-election this November, with the vast majority of Florida residents who oppose offshore drilling as well as giving a boost to the president in the state that gave him the White House in the disputed 2000 presidential election.
By siding with local interests, however, the president is compromising his position that the United States must develop more domestic energy resources, notably by drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or ANWR.
Under an agreement that requires congressional approval, the U.S. government will pay the Collier family about $120 million for mineral rights in Big Cypress National Preserve - which sits beside Everglades National Park - as well as in Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge and Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge.
The White House said the Collier family had donated some of the land to create the three preserves but retained the rights to their oil and gas reserves, which the Interior Department estimated at the equivalent of 40 million barrels of oil or roughly two days of U.S. domestic consumption.
Under the second agreement, the government will pay about $115 million to several oil companies, including ChevronTexaco Corp. , Conoco Inc. and Murphy Oil Corp. , to buy out seven of nine natural gas leases in the "Destin Dome Unit" field off the coast of Pensacola, Florida.
The White House said the second deal would settle litigation brought by several of the oil companies that sued the federal government over alleged improper regulatory hurdles that have delayed Destin Dome's development. Murphy Oil will keep the two other Destin Dome leases, but those will be suspended until at least 2012, the Interior Department said.
Gov. Bush said the Destin Dome leases, awarded under the Clinton administration, could have brought oil rigs within 25 miles (40 km) of Florida's coast, raising the specter of oil spills that could devastate Florida's huge tourism industry.
Environmentalists hailed the agreements, although they noted they did not entirely prevent offshore drilling because there were active leases in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and that Murphy could drill in Destin Dome after 2012 as long as the state and federal governments did not object.
The natural gas industry, however, said the Destin Dome deal would make U.S. energy self-sufficiency more elusive.
'GOOD POLITICS'
"These are important steps in preserving some of our nation's most beautiful natural treasures," Bush, a former Texas oilman, said in a written statement after an Oval Office appearance with his brother, who is likely to face Democrat Janet Reno, a former U.S. attorney general, in November.
Asked if the deals could help him politically, Gov. Bush said, "I hope so, but more importantly it is good public policy and when there is a convergence of good politics and good public policy I don't think we should be ashamed about it."
Spanning the southern tip of the Florida peninsula and most of Florida Bay, Everglades National Park is renowned for its rich plant and animal life, including large wading birds such as the roseate spoonbill, wood stork and great blue heron.
"This is a decision that probably is going to play well with moderate, independent voters and that is where these battlegrounds are decided," said Florida State University Professor Robert Jackson, saying the decision may have been taken on the merits but would likely help both Bush brothers.
"We're extremely pleased. This has been a 20-year battle against oil and gas industry efforts to open up the Florida coast to drilling," said Mark Ferrulo, director of Florida Public Interest Research Group, which opposes drilling. "This is as close as we've ever been to winning permanent protection."
Skip Horvath, president of the Natural Gas Supply Association, an industry group, criticized Bush's moves.
"We cannot continue to chisel away at Americ