Crist, Florida Dems Consider Constitutional Ban on Offshore Oil Production

Democrats in the Florida state legislature are proposing a constitutional amendment to forbid offshore oil and natural gas production in state waters. Supporters of the proposed constitutional amendment are hoping public backlash in response to the Gulf oil spill will enable them to permanently end prospects for oil and natural gas production in waters near the state’s shore.

Reps. Keith Fitzgerald (D-Sarasota) and Rick Kriseman (D-St. Petersburg) have begun recruiting support for the constitutional amendment in the House, and Senator Dan Gelber (D-Miami Beach), who is running for state attorney general in November’s elections, sent a letter to Governor Charlie Crist (I) seeking Crist’s support. Crist said Thursday he would consider calling a special legislative session to consider the constitutional amendment.

While Florida legislators considered the proposed constitutional amendment, the Obama administration suffered another embarrassment when reports emerged that Department of the Interior chief of staff Tom Strickland, who was supposed to be one of the top officials coordinating the federal government’s response to the oil spill, went to the Grand Canyon to go on a whitewater rafting trip three days after the spill first began. Word of Strickland’s trip emerged following another embarrassing revelation that the Obama administration failed to follow a federal oil spill contingency plan – drafted during the Clinton administration – that would likely have contained the Gulf oil spill almost immediately after it began. 

The Obama administration continues to assert that they have had “all hands on deck” utilizing all available personnel and resources to contain the Gulf oil spill “from Day One.”