Bill Nelson, other reps call on Charlie Crist to step it up on oil drilling ban

The letter to Crist from a "bi partisan group" of Florida lawmakers (all Democrats, but for Ileana Ros-Lehtinen:

"Dear Gov. Crist,

The oil leak that is spewing millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico undoubtedly will be the worst in U.S. history. That’s what Carol Browner, assistant to the president for energy and climate change, said in a television interview just this morning.

For Florida, it may yet mean full or partial destruction of the world’s third largest coral reef in the Florida Keys and a devastating hit to Florida’s beaches and ttourism-driven economy.

Earlier this month, you offered Floridians hope that this horrible tragedy may be something from which we can gain wisdom. You said a special legislative session would be called to consider a proposed constitutional amendment to ban oil drilling within sight of Florida’s beaches.

But that was more than two weeks ago. We are troubled that only yesterday you said you still are just pursuing it.Governor, you have the authority to call the Legislature back to Tallahassee. 

We urge you to do so, because every reasonable lawmaker should re-examine the safety claims and promises of riches by Big Oil in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon spill. 

We’re confident that given a constitutional amendment on the ballot this November Floridians will make the right choice for our state.

Sincerely,

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson

Rep. Alcee Hastings

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Rep. Corrine Brown

Rep. Kendrick Meek

Rep. Alan Grayson

Rep. Ted Deutch

Rep. Ron Klein

Rep. Kathy Castor

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Rep. Suzanne Kosmas

Comments

[edukatednfla]

It seems Charlie must be in conference with the Teabagger loonies who are confident that the Big Oil private corporations will take care of the waves of petro-sludge heading our way. Don't need no socialists interfering with the private sector by allowing government agencies to bother corporations with silly rules and regulations.

[Josh Ribakoff]

We need to regulate the oil drilling harder. In other countries they don't drill without relief wells. In USA we have a law on the books that says the mineral management has 30 days to respond to a drilling permit application before it is approved by default. If the MMS isn't allowed ample time to deny the permits, the oil companies are going to keep using unsafe practices.

What we need, is to drill SAFELY by having redundant relief wells pre-drilled ahead of time.

Obviously ending all drilling is ideal, but to be pragmatic we still need oil while we make the shift over the next 100 years.