Creative Loafing re: proposed ban on any more offshore oil drilling off Florida's coast

Will Floridians pass a measure banning offshore drilling off state waters?

February 11, 2011 at 8:30 am by Mitch Perry

Just a few weeks after there was an explosion on Deepwater Horizon offshore oil platform last April, creating the largest marine oil spill in history, three Democratic state Legislators in Florida – St. Petersburg’s Rick Kriseman, Sarasota’s Keith Fitzgerald, and Miami Beach’s Dan Gelber, called on Governor Charlie Crist to hold a special session to have the Legislature then vote on putting a constitutional amendment on the November ballot banning offshore drilling in state waters.

That didn’t happen then, but the sentiment amongst those worried about a similar fate led two now out of power politicians to call for such an amendment in 2012 on Wednesday.

Those would be former Governor Charlie Crist and former CEO Alex Sink.

The two held a news conference on the steps of the state Capitol on Wednesday, joined by other lawmakers calling for a petition drive to get the measure on the 2012 ballot. They have almost a full year (Feb. 1 2012) to collect 676,811 signatures to get it on the 2012 ballot.

The Tallahassee Democrat reports that the group sponsoring the measure, Save Our Seas, Beaches and Shores, Inc. hopes to raise $1 million to get those signatures, but will also rely “heavily” on volunteer power.

State law currently prohibits drilling 3-10 miles into the Gulf of Mexico, but a constitutional amendment would make it impossible for any new Legislature change that law, which Senate President Mike Haridopolos and House Speaker Dean Cannon were holding hearings about a year and a half ago, prior to the BP disaster.

You can get more information at saveourfloridabeaches.net and sosbs.org.