Protect The Gulf Coast

Gulf Coast Business Coalition Members (GCBC):  First, I hope you are all fairing as best you can if not better through these ever changing days and months. The GCBC sends gratitude for your participation and endurance on the advocacy against further expansion/exploration of Offshore Drilling off the Gulf Coast of Florida.  As a result of COVID we have not only been focussed on pandemic items, but have also been behind the scenes continuing to advocate through media, written op – eds and meetings on behalf of each and everyone of your businesses.   Your coalition is sensitive to the pandemic environment and know you each have responsibilities to your own direct businesses.  In addition to your support, the help from the team at Oceana and volunteers; GCBC is proud that our voices are being heard. With cautious optimism from this month’s news from the President on the “memorandum” we push ahead.  This news sheds some light not only for the Gulf Coast, but our friends that formed before us in the Atlantic Coast.  We must not stop now – we need to charge ahead.!  Now is the time to be a bright light on the heels of this message.  We must continue to call out that this memorandum is a step closer for a non partisan solution to this continuous battle.  This we hope will make it harder to go backward and encourage a forward united movement. Thank you for your time, you can reach me via email: robin@tampabayeahces.com  Respectfully, Robin Miller President & CEO, Tampa Bay Beaches Chamber of Commerce  Chair, Florida Gulf Coast Business Coalition

Below is the Presidential Memorandum that outlines the withdraw of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico:  Link to Presidential Memo: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/memorandum-withdrawal-certain-areas-united-states-outer-continental-shelf-leasing-disposition/ Overview of the Order On September 8th, the Trump Administration formally withdrew all waters adjacent to Florida, Georgia and South Carolina from offshore oil drilling for ten years. The effective date is July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2032.This extends the current Congressional moratorium off Florida’s Gulf Coast and adds protects the South Atlantic and Straits of Florida Planning Areas.    This Presidential withdraw is the same authority used by the Obama administration to protect much of the Arctic and Atlantic Canyons. The difference here is that the Trump administration’s action is for 10 years versus in perpetuity.

On September 11, 2019 the U.S. House of Representatives passed critical legislation to protect the eastern Gulf of Mexico from offshore drilling. The Protecting and Securing Florida’s Coastline Act (H.R. 205) was introduced by Representatives Francis Rooney and Kathy Castor to amend the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006 (GOMESA) to permanently block offshore oil and gas leasing off Florida’s Gulf Coast. The current moratorium in the eastern Gulf is set to expire in 2022. This bill passed with bipartisan support as the nearly united Florida Congressional Delegation led the way and voted yes on H.R. 205. This bill is a major step forward in the fight to ensure that offshore drilling not get one inch closer to Florida’s gulf coast. Thank you to all the members of Congress who stood with coastal communities yesterday and voted to protect Florida’s Gulf coast.

Now Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio have the opportunity to champion this bipartisan effort and work to generate support in the Senate.

**Leading up to the vote, the Florida Gulf Coast Business Coalition was mentioned on the House Floor by Representative Grijalva – check it out!

We are delighted to announce that Visit Pensacola and the Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce have joined the Florida Gulf Coast Business Coalition growing our coalition to now represent over 6,000 businesses along Florida’s Gulf Coast! 

If your business or chamber has yet to join, you can sign up with no fees or obligations here. 

Defense is Florida’s fourth largest industry, with a total economic footprint of roughly $78.9 billion. The large area off Florida’s Gulf coast – known as the eastern Gulf of Mexico – has a long history of providing unconstrained access for military training and testing activities that are essential to U.S. national security. Recognizing the importance of this area for national defense training, Congress enacted the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (GOMESA) to protect this section of the Gulf from any offshore oil and gas development in 2006.

For more information on how offshore drilling affects military readiness in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, click here.

Trump’s dangerous offshore drilling plan will only bring losses to more families from the unavoidable spills and scarring industrialization that comes with this dirty industry. If drilling is expanded, our coastal businesses and surrounding communities will be the first to feel the negative impacts.

By Tom Kies, Robin Miller and Vipe Desai

Recent reporting by the Wall Street Journal that President Donald Trump’s plan to open nearly all of our oceans to offshore drilling has stalled is welcome news. As leaders of three business alliances — representing more than 47,000 businesses and over 500,000 fishing families — we are encouraged by the news of delay. Our businesses are part of the opposition that’s swelled large and loud enough to slow the president’s risky plan. Unfortunately, until we hear that our waters are off the table entirely, we cannot breathe a sigh of relief.

The threat of offshore drilling and exploration is clear: It would put us out of business. Oil spills and coastal businesses cannot coexist, which is why so many have united against the president’s plan for wholesale drilling off our coasts. Our favorite local restaurants, surf shops and major beachfront hotels employ our neighbors, friends and families and make up the cultural fabric of our special coastal communities. The delayed offshore drilling proposal directly threatens more than 2.6 million coastal jobs and roughly $180 billion in GDP that is generated from fishing, tourism and recreation along the Atlantic, Pacific and Florida’s Gulf coasts.

To understand the threat, look no further than the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, which claimed 11 lives and destroyed marine environments across the Gulf of Mexico. The spill caused a sharp drop in tourism throughout Gulf Coast cities as people took their vacations elsewhere. Wary of consuming oil-contaminated food, the regional seafood industry also took a hit. Real estate values dropped in Florida, even in areas like St. Petersburg that never saw oil. Black sludge lapping onto Pensacola beaches likely drove a 52 percent decrease in searches for the Panhandle city on TripAdvisor, compared to when it had been oil-free. From Louisiana to Florida, for-hire fishing trips dropped by anywhere from 33 to 98 percent in each Gulf Coast state following the spill. More than 10 million user-days of beach, fishing and boating were lost because of the disaster.

Behind those statistics are real people and real families that rely on a clean and healthy ocean to make ends meet. As it stands, Trump’s dangerous offshore drilling plan will only bring losses to more families from the unavoidable spills and scarring industrialization that comes with this dirty industry. If drilling is expanded, our coastal businesses and surrounding communities will be the first to feel the negative impacts. Another catastrophic spill would be our generation’s legacy to our children and grandchildren.

Claims of new jobs from the oil industry should be met with skepticism. The few jobs that could come from new offshore drilling would likely go to out-of-state or foreign workers, and even the majority of those wouldn’t become a reality for 10 to 20 years after the leasing. Offshore drilling is neither dependable nor safe, but our current coastal industries are both. It’s imperative that we protect the jobs and communities that thrive on a clean and healthy ocean.

Decisions being made right now on offshore drilling will have major impacts on our livelihoods far into the future. That’s why plans to expand offshore drilling should be formally ended, not simply delayed. Opposition to offshore drilling bridges the political divide and we collectively represent hundreds of thousands of hard-working Americans waiting for some reassurance that our coasts will be protected.

We believe President Trump is committed to American jobs and hope he will do the right thing to protect ours. The president and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt need to ensure the public that new areas will be off the table for future drilling. Sidelining the drilling plan is one thing, now we need it thrown out altogether. Our waters need protecting, and so do our businesses.

Tom Kies is the president of the Carteret County (N.C.) Chamber of Commerce and president of the Business Alliance for Protecting the Atlantic Coast; Robin Miller is the president/CEO of the Tampa Bay Beaches Chamber of Commerce and chair of the Florida Gulf Coast Business Coalition; and Vipe Desai is the CEO of HDX Mix and a founding member of the Business Alliance for Protecting the Pacific Coast.

Original article found here.

By Diane Hoskins via The Hill

Last week, the House of Representatives voted on several measures that would protect our coasts from offshore drilling. These amendments prevent federal dollars from being spent to expand offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and off Florida’s Gulf coast. The strong bipartisan votes cut through the partisan rancor and demonstrate the strength of opposition to offshore drilling. If ultimately enacted, the bans on offshore drilling would last for one-year, and now we’re counting on the Senate to follow the House’s leadership on this issue and protect our coasts.

At stake are billions of dollars and millions of jobs from the fishing, recreation and tourism industries that depend on a clean, healthy ocean. Expanding offshore oil drilling would wreak havoc on coastal businesses and communities. That’s why more than 360 municipalities; over 2,200 local, state and federal elected officials; every East and West coast governor; fishing and tourism groups; and alliances representing nearly 50,000 businesses on the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf coasts have all come out against offshore drilling activities.   

President Trump opened the door to expanding offshore drilling to nearly all U.S. waters in a proposed plan last year. To many, the release of this plan brought to mind the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The explosion killed 11 people and poured millions of gallons of oil into Gulf waters. Hundreds of thousands of birds, marine mammals and sea turtles died. The prospect of oily beaches led to hotel cancellations up and down Florida’s Gulf Coast, even in places the oil never reached. Losses to the fishing industry are estimated well into the billions.

But it’s not only large-scale catastrophes that threaten our coasts. Smaller, chronic spills happen all the time. At least 6,500 oil spills occurred in U.S. waters between 2007 and 2017. Spills are almost always larger than reported, and cleanup methods haven’t advanced since the ’80s. It’s estimated that after the Deepwater Horizon cleanup ended, 60 million gallons of oil remained in the environment. Expanding already harmful and unsafe offshore drilling activities to other shores would be disastrous.

Even the search for oil will be harmful. The Trump administration gave five companies the greenlight to harm ocean wildlife as they search for oil deposits below the Atlantic sea floor using seismic airgun blasting. This disruptive practice involves dynamite-like blasts sending sound waves deep into the ocean floor. These blasts are repeated about every 10 seconds for weeks to months at a time. The area slated for seismic airgun blasting is huge, stretching from New Jersey to Florida. This noise could harm species ranging from the smallest zooplankton—the base of the marine food chain—to the ocean’s largest animals, like the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Violently disrupting the ocean’s delicate balance at this scale would lead to irreparable damage to marine ecosystems and the fishing and tourism industries that depend on them. It’s no wonder the House of Representatives voted to keep dirty and dangerous drilling away from our coast. It’s time to stop the expansion of offshore oil drilling for good. The votes last week show that along the coast, opposing offshore drilling is no partisan matter. Now Congress can ensure that harm is permanently averted by passing two bipartisan bills, introduced by Reps. Joe Cunningham (D-S.C.) and Frances Rooney (R-Fla.), to permanently protect the Atlantic, Pacific and Florida’s Gulf Coast from offshore oil drilling.

We are counting on our lawmakers to come together again and use all available tools to stop offshore drilling. Our representatives can show their constituents that they are listening. Let’s show the American people that the government can still work for them, not the offshore oil industry.

Diane Hoskins is campaign director at Oceana.

For the original article, click here.

In the fight to prevent expanded offshore drilling off the Gulf coast of Florida, Congressman Francis Rooney has led the way. This past week, Rooney testified before the U.S. House Rules Committee in favor of his bill (H.R. 205) to permanently protect the eastern Gulf of Mexico from offshore drilling. In his testimony, the Congressman spoke of the eastern Gulf’s importance to United States’ national security.

“The Eastern Gulf is home to the Gulf Test Range, a 120,000 square mile range that stretches from the Florida panhandle to Key West. This unimpeded training and testing area is of critical importance to our military now and will become even more important in the future, as hypersonic and drone testing increase.”

He also noted the importance of an oil free coastline to Florida’s tourist economy. Florida’s Gulf Coast supports more than 609,000 jobs and generates over $37.4 billion in GDP annually.

Congressman Rooney is not alone in his opposition to offshore drilling. In Florida, elected officials from both sides of the aisle, including Governor Ron DeSantis, are united in their opposition to offshore drilling because of the threat it poses to our country’s national security and Florida’s clean coast economy. 

For more on Congressman Rooney’s testimony, read Sunshine State News article here.

Earlier this month, former U.S. Senator Jim Webb visited Pensacola to promote offshore oil exploration. As co-chair of Explore Offshore, a project of the American Petroleum Institute (API) that encourages the expansion of offshore oil exploration, Webb intended to counter the staunch opposition to drilling already in place along the Gulf. The crux of his argument was simple: vast improvements have been made to the oil industry and any drilling would take place “way over the sight line” so it would not “be a bother.” Floridians, however, would argue otherwise.

A recent report by Oceana revealed that 9 years after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the federal government has failed to adopt and implement comprehensive safety measures to protect us from another disaster of this scale. The report found that at least 6,500 oil spills occurred in U.S. waters between 2007 and 2017 and that these spills are typically far larger than reported. Additionally, spills such as the Taylor Energy oil spill, which has been leaking millions of barrels of oil for 14 years now, remain uncapped with no solution in sight.

Finally, Floridians know all too well that just because you cannot see an oil rig, does not mean your shores and tourist economies are safe. The BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig was off the coast of Louisiana, nowhere near Florida’s Gulf coast, and yet oil ended up on our beaches. Offshore drilling is already too close, and we cannot allow it one inch closer. Perhaps Pensacola Mayor Grover Robinson said it best, “No drilling. Period.”

To read more visit: http://inweekly.net/wordpress/?p=34657   

The FGCBC was delighted to see U.S. Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio use their influence to urge the Department of Interior to exclude Florida’s Gulf Coast from the Federal offshore drilling plan. This letter was sent ahead of the much anticipated release of the Proposed (offshore drilling) Program expected to come out in the coming weeks. We must ensure that our coasts are protected.

Below is the article by Scott Powers of Florida Politics

Rick Scott, Marco Rubio urge feds to keep Florida out of off-shore drilling plans

Florida’s U.S. Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio sent a letter Wednesday to new Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt urging the department to exclude Florida’s Gulf Coast from oil and gas drilling plans, just as his predecessor had pledged to do.

Their letter reiterates the position they pressed on President Donald Trump‘s administration to keep Florida’s Gulf Coast out of the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Proposed Plan being developed. But the previous federal assurances Florida had were expressed through now former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who famously made the assurances to Scott in a brief Tallahassee visit, only to have other federal officials declare weeks later that Florida was still on the table.

Bernhardt is a former oil lobbyist. He succeeded Zinke at the start of the year.

Wednesday’s letter from Florida’s Republican Senators included a reminder of Zinke’s promise to include Florida’s gulf waters in a moratorium.

“Citing the broad support within the state for protecting Florida’s coastline from the potential risks from offshore drilling, your predecessor was publicly supportive of our request,” Scott and Rubio wrote. “In addition, the people of Florida recently demonstrated this broad support when they overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the state’s constitution banning drilling for oil and natural gas in state waters.”

They cited the environmental and economic value of offshore waters to Florida, as well as the “Military Mission Line” that Scott’s predecessor, Democratic former U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, had fought for, forbidding drilling in waters offshore from Florida’s military installations.

“We remain concerned about the impacts of oil and gas activities on Florida’s marine and coastal environment, as well as the military activities critical to our national security,” Rubio and Scott wrote. “Oil spills, such as the Deepwater Horizon disaster, have demonstrated the catastrophic impacts increased oil and gas drilling around Florida could wreak on our state’s environmental resources, fisheries, tourism, and economy.

“Once again, we urge the Department to stand by your commitment to exclude the offshore waters around Florida from further consideration in its National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Proposed Plan. We welcome the opportunity to continue working with you to preserve Florida’s natural treasures and the economic benefits they help to support for generations to come,” they concluded.