Oil Drilling: First the Arctic - Now offshore Florida?

  • by: Care2
  • recipient: Governor Bush
The U.S. Department of the Interior is considering changing "administrative" boundaries for states in the Gulf of Mexico and as a result weakening Florida's protections against offshore oil drilling. With the new boundaries, drilling as close as 125 miles off the coast of Florida would be possible!

A spokesman for Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), called the move "a thinly veiled act" by which the Bush administration "appears to be moving rapidly to open a huge portion of the eastern Gulf of Mexico off Florida to oil drilling."

Each drilling platform could legally dump 90,000 tons of heavy metals, muds, and toxic chemicals into our waters. This pollution would cause health and reproductive problems for fish and other marine life.

Opening our shores to drilling would only put our beaches and coastal waters at great environmental risk for a small, short-term supply of gas. We can do better! If our cars and trucks got an average of a couple more miles per gallon, we'd save more oil than exists off the entire coast of Florida!

Sign the petition below to tell Gov. Bush and our leaders in Congress to stop the rush to drill and start pushing sensible choices like better gas mileage and clean energy!

Dear Governor Bush,

I am writing to express my deep concern about the proposed shifting of boundaries of Gulf of Mexico waters that would allow oil drilling off the coast of Florida.

Opening our shores to drilling would only put our beaches and coastal waters at great environmental risk for a small, short-term supply of gas. We would still face a long-term energy crisis while our environment and economy would confront new risks due to pollution and potential for catastrophic spills. We can do better.

If our cars and trucks got an average of a couple more miles per gallon, we'd save more oil than exists off the entire coast of Florida. Instead of allowing oil companies to drill off our coast, you should be leading the fight in Washington for better gas mileage and clean energy.

Please oppose any legislation that would allow oil or gas drilling anywhere off the Florida coast.

Sincerely,

[your name]
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