Posted on 05/29/2002 1:31:38 PM PDT by Dog Gone
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush anted up $235 million in federal funds Wednesday to shelter Florida's Everglades and beaches from oil and gas drilling, an environmental deal that his brother, the state's governor, acknowledged as a re-election boon.
``Florida is known worldwide for its beautiful coastal waters and the Everglades. Today we are acting to preserve both,'' the president said in a written statement.
Environmentalists mostly cheered the action but challenged Bush to apply similar protections to Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Rocky Mountain Front and other areas he wants to open to energy production.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, seeking a second term in November, escorted to the White House members of the Collier family, who are to receive $120 million for their oil and gas drilling rights if Congress approves the agreement.
The second half of the deal, a $115-million settlement buying out nine oil and gas leases to preclude drilling in Gulf of Mexico areas closest to Pensacola, does not require legislation and will proceed without Congress, said Interior Secretary Gale Norton.
Asked outside the White House if his campaign stands to benefit politically in a state where polls show 75 percent of Floridians opposed to offshore drilling, Jeb Bush, the president's younger brother, replied:
``I hope so. But more importantly, it is good public policy and when there's a convergence of good politics and good public policy, I don't think we should be ashamed about it.''
Phil Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, said the agreement was a ``$235 million campaign contribution to the Re-Elect Jeb Bush Committee, courtesy of U.S. taxpayers.''
Florida, decisive in the 2000 presidential campaign, is also critical to any re-election plans President Bush has for 2004.
Using the Everglades' nickname, Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., heralded the deal as the most significant single act by any president to preserve the Florida wetlands. ``The River of Grass is now Bush country,'' Foley said.
Jeb Bush also addressed the apparent discrepancy between the president's push to open the Alaskan refuge to oil drilling, a proposal embraced by House Republicans but rejected by the Democratic-controlled Senate, at the same time he was bargaining to take substantial areas in Florida off the table for energy production.
``I find nothing ironic about it at all,'' the governor said.
The Florida economy relies heavily on tourists who, in turn, count on Florida for clean beaches and a ``pristine natural environment,'' Jeb Bush said, using a description frequently applied to the Alaskan wilderness during the drilling debate.
Jeb Bush said it is for others to decide the Alaska question.
At the Natural Resources Defense Council, policy analyst Lisa Speer said the deal was good news but amounted to a ``double standard'' when weighed against the administration's interest in developing energy resources in Alaska and the Rocky Mountain Front.
``We'd like to see the same protections applied in an equal and fair way,'' Speer said.
The proposed $120 million buyout of the Collier family would nullify its substantial oil and gas rights in the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge and Big Cypress National Preserve, which is adjacent to Everglades National Park.
The $115 million payment settles a lawsuit by several petroleum companies accusing the federal government of throwing up regulatory hurdles to their development of oil and gas leases in Destin Dome, the large natural gas field in the Gulf of Mexico offshore from Pensacola. By buying back the development leases in question, the Bush administration is precluding oil and gas production in the area.
On two unexplored leases not covered by the Destin Dome buyout, Jeb Bush said the state and federal government will essentially have ``veto power'' over future development.
During the 2000 presidential campaign, Bush supported offshore drilling but promised to consult with governors and back those, like his brother, who seek bans off their state coastlines.
WASHINGTON, July 3 — The Bush administration sharply scaled back its plans today to drill for oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico, trying to defuse an issue that has pitted President Bush against his brother Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida.Gale A. Norton, the secretary of the interior, said the administration would seek to let oil companies drill on about 1.5 million acres in the gulf, a quarter of the roughly 6 million acres that the Clinton administration first proposed opening for leasing in 1997.
The compromise plan retreats from Mr. Bush's national energy strategy, released in May, which argued that urgent steps were needed to find more domestic energy sources, including in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. It hands a clear victory to Governor Bush, who along with Florida's influential Congressional delegation opposed any drilling that might threaten the state's beaches.
Administration officials acknowledged that the decision reflected the president's efforts to find a way out of a political quandary that involved family ties, splits in the Republican Party and attacks by environmentalists on Mr. Bush's energy policies...."
Hmmmmm... Clinton had no problem with it...
Bet there's a lot of gas and oil there... doesn't sound like the big boys (Exxon, etc.) are in on Florida, sooooooo, cut out the competition perhaps on our dime? "Environmentalism" just a cover story?
``I find nothing ironic about it at all,'' the governor said.
I do (find it ironic), Mr. Governor and Mr. President. I guess those arguments for making America independent of foreign oil by drilling in ANWR, and mining clean-burning coal, only apply to states not governed by a family member.
What the heck, as long as stay chummy with the mother of all terrorism, Saudi Arabia, we don't need to be independent now, do we?
1. Shell Offshore bought 28 leases for $109.6 million
2. Anadarko bought 26 leases for $136 million
3. Kerr McGee bought 16 leases for $34.7 million
4. Marathon bought 14 leases for $28.3 million
5. Amerada Hess bought 8 leases for $6.8 million
If anything pops up specifically about who owned these "Everglades" leases you might post it too.
This is a powerful Fla family. (they have a county named after them) This is much more than they paid for this land & they still get to keep the land. They have been drilling on this land and my guess is there's not enough oil there. Sweet deal.
That's how a republic works. An elected official needs to please in order to get elected. Maybe we should try a dictator next go around ?
Can somebody tell me where the money will come from? We are now OVER 6 trillion in debt and growing every day. We are the biggest debtor nation in the world.
Buying his brother votes with the taxpayer credit card - now there is conservatism for you.
"I place economy among the first and important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our choice between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy." --Thomas Jefferson
It's coming from me. That is my approximate tax bill each year.
To me a principled man is one who doesn't force his view on me.
I live in Collier County, and if I understand it correctly, the Colliers own the oil and mineral rights to ALL the property in the county. They don't by any means own all of it.
I disagree with this decision. Oil exploration isn't the evil boogeyman that that the wackos have created in the minds of the public, especially in the states of Florida and California. It's a lie, supported by those with an anti-growth, anti-logic agenda.
On the other hand, we're not talking about world-class reserves, and it would have, by itself, no significant impact on daily domestic production. I'm in the oil industry and there are even some places that I don't think should be drilled. Arlington Cemetary, for example, LOL.
The problem here isn't really the loss of production. It's the reinforcement of the idea that energy production is incompatible with responsible protection of the environment. That is simply wrong.
I agree with you, but people here in FL are afraid of what may happen to our tourism industry if there was some sort of accident due to increased oil drilling. It's scare tactics by the environmentalists. I'm not so sure of the idea, even.. but I live here. The people in Alaska, on the other hand, supported drilling in ANWR. Their economy isn't solely tourism like it is here in FL.
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