Jeb's oil alternative: drill but preserve the buffer

Former Gov. Jeb Bush, who negotiated the federal-state compromise to keep drilling away from Florida shores, said in an email to the Miami Herald that he supports drilling off Florida with restrictions. His suggestion: reviving the 2006 compromise to create a deep buffer around Florida while lifting the moratorium on domestic oil and gas drilling.

"I support the president's continued advocacy to develop domestic sources of oil and gas with a sense of urgency," Bush said. "This does not diminish the long term need to conserve and develop alternative sources of energy.

"I would encourage Congress to reconsider the common sense plan that Congressman Pombo and I worked on in 2006. The proposal would have provided a 100 mile buffer of permanent protection around the state from Jacksonville to Pensacola and, at the same time, would have opened up millions of acres in the energy rich Central Gulf for new exploration."

See today's Herald on the rising Republican rift over oil driling, and the nuts and bolts questions surrounding drilling off Florida's coast.

Comments

[Observer]

At least, this was an attempt to compromise. we are strangled by unforgiving positions that offer one solution and consider all others just politics. I don't think the public has any idea how vulnerable we are with oil. Our energy pollicy needs to include drilling our own oil, building nuclear plants, using our vast coal reserves with clean coal technology, tax incentives to conserve energy and alternate fuels that do not compromise our food supply. It is true that drillng off our coast and ANWR will not decrease the cost of gas immediately. What it will do is decrease our vulnerability to international blackmail that could literally destroy our economy.