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.
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