TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Charlie Crist thinks Floridians want to drill, baby, drill. Here, baby, here.
The governor told reporters Wednesday he was being "open-minded" to a proposal unveiled a day earlier by Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, that would give offshore drillers a chance to set up rigs within sight of Florida's Gulf of Mexico beaches.
The bill would lift the state's decades-old ban on rigs and give the governor and Cabinet authority over proposals for drilling between 3 and 10 miles from shore.
Crist agreed with Cannon's assessment a day earlier that the pressure $4-per-gallon gas applied a year earlier meant politicians needed to act.
"The more diversified we can be in terms of the energy resources that we have, the stronger it makes Florida and America," Crist told reporters Wednesday.
"The experience of last summer tells you when gas goes above $4 a barrel that people want options. They want solar, wind, nuclear, any option that can be exercised responsibly and safely. The more options a consumer has, the better off we're going to be."
That probably isn't the response environmentalists were hoping to hear. The bill is likely to be the potential trade with the Senate for Crist's utility emission standards bill, which has moved through a committee stop in the Senate but has seen zero movement in the House. The governor said he was "open-minded to reviewing" the drilling addition.
The House Policy Council approved a bill (HB 1219) Tuesday that would allow the governor and Cabinet to approve drilling off the coast.
Asked whether he would sign a House bill that would allow the governor and Cabinet to OK drilling leases, Crist said, "I don't know. I think we need to study it more. I think we need to learn more about it and I'm open-minded to reviewing it."
He's not alone. Two of the three Cabinet members, Attorney General Bill McCollum and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, both Republicans, also said they'll remain open to the idea. But the fact that the issue came up so suddenly and late in the session upset Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, a Democrat and the third Cabinet member.
