‘All bets are off’ for oil drilling off Florida, Crist says
by Dara Kam | May 3rd, 2010Oil drilling off the Florida coast is dead for now because of the massive oil leak spreading in the Gulf of Mexico, Gov. Charlie Crist said, renewing his call for clean energy sources.
“This is the resurrection of the clean energy argument. Without a doubt in my view.
You’ve got to have solar. We’ve got to move more rapidly to develop wind, nuclear as well. If this does not make the case that we’ve got to have energy resources that are clean that don’t destruct our environment I don’t know what is. I mean, it’s exactly that,” Crist told reporters after a noon briefing at state emergency operations headquarters.
The newly-independent governor and U.S. Senate candidate called the timing of the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion “pretty extraordinary” given that some GOP leaders, including future House Speaker Dean Cannon and future Senate President Mike Haridopolos, were pushing for offshore drilling throughout the legislative session that ended Friday.
“I’ve always said that as long as it was far enough, clean enough and safe enough, that it would be something that I would be willing to look at. This is not far enough. This is not safe enough. It sure as heck isn’t clean enough. I mean, it’s just not good enough, period,” Crist said.
“So given that, I think all bets are off. We’ve got to cease and desist as it relates to this and we’ve got to further renew our commitment to solar and wind and nuclear and other forms of clean energy and natural gas too. We’ve got a lot of that. It’s a lot cleaner than this stuff.”
Lawmakers failed to approve a renewable energy package during the session, and Crist said he may call them back into a special session to deal with the issue or add it to a special session on another topic.
“Absolutely,” he said.
Tags: beaches, BP, Charlie Crist, Deepwater Horizon, offshore drilling, oil spill, renewable energy
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May 3rd, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Good decision!! What I can’t get my hands around is how is it that there was no Disaster Recovery Plan in place so that it would not take at least 90 days to cap off the spill.
Florida’s Coastline will soon be ruined. Think about the cost, the people out of jobs, the fisherman and women, etc.
Don’t light a match at the beach!!
May 3rd, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Our “leaders” are so brave …. until something bad happens. Glad we did not take this approach after the space shuttle blew up. The day (god forbid) there is a nuclear accident at one of our plants, I am sure all our “leaders” will be in front of the microphines saying “close all nuclear plants now. Its time we go back to horses and covered wagons”.
May 3rd, 2010 at 2:41 pm
“If this does not make the case that we’ve got to have energy resources that are clean that don’t DESTRUCT our environment I don’t know what is.”
Wow, he really said that????
May 3rd, 2010 at 2:42 pm
My heart goes out to all of the affected parties.
Hopefully, the oil company will live up to paying for the damages but they will go bankrupt. Also, unfortunately how many more hits certain homeowners/businesses can take in this economy in this region!
May 3rd, 2010 at 3:44 pm
The unfortunate thing is that all the individual businessmen and their employees will NEVER be fully compensated for what they are about to lose. Sure they’ll talk about compensating the people affected, but you can ignore that sales pitch. It’ll never happen.Never.
May 3rd, 2010 at 3:44 pm
While offshore drilling is and will remain vital to our success in building a strong energy mix in this country, we can’t overlook just how important a role alternatives like solar will play.
The long term affects of this oil spill will be felt for decades to come and during this time, maybe we should be promoting solar because the results never change if the input stays the same.
May 3rd, 2010 at 3:48 pm
I would rather have a thousand windmills surrounding our coast at 10 miles out then one oilrig that can dump half a million barrels of oil a day into the ocean, sacrifice the view for energy independence for Florida!
May 3rd, 2010 at 3:55 pm
All the living beings harmed by this, from the Florida residents and so many self employed and business owners, homeowners, to all the wildlife they love, so many unseen deaths will occur, down to the tiniest plankton, horrible horrible.
May 3rd, 2010 at 4:11 pm
?
May 3rd, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Don’t be pussies. The world is resilient and will repair itself. Oil is a naturally occurring substance.
May 3rd, 2010 at 4:44 pm
“Drill Baby Drill”
May 3rd, 2010 at 5:06 pm
I hope people aren’t foolish enough to believe that BP will pay to clean up their mess. WE the fuel buying public will being paying for this disaster for years to come… AT THE GAS PUMPS!!!!!!
May 3rd, 2010 at 5:18 pm
“Don’t be pussies. The world is resilient and will repair itself. Oil is a naturally occurring substance.” Hey Stuart, why don’t you go over there and take a swim in it ? Film yourself while you’re at it.
May 3rd, 2010 at 7:06 pm
Anyone could have seen this was going to happen and now our glorius leaders decide – ohhh we cannot drill in Florida – wake up the ban should have been there long ago and stay there – I would rather walk on the beach than pay the rip off oil companies for their gas.
I am sick of corrupt politicians! I am sick of crooks running the oil industry! I am sick of the rich using everyone to gain wealth!
May 4th, 2010 at 12:22 am
WHEN BIG BUSINESS IS IN CONTROL IT SEEMS THAT SAFETY SUFFERS…MY SYMPATHY TO THE FAMILIES OF THE 29 MINERS THAT JUST RECENTLY DIED…SAFETY MEASURES ALTHOUGH COSTLY SEEMS TO BE NEEDED TO PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT AND LIVES.