These
comments were made on April 6th, at a public hearing of the
U.S. Department of Interior Minerals Management Service (MMS)
Good afternoon, my name is Barney Bishop III, and I’m the
President & CEO of Associated Industries of Florida, commonly
known as AIF. AIF is an 86 year old general business organization
with 10,000 members and our membership base is reflective of Florida’s
business environment – about 80% of our members have 25
or fewer employees. Our members are in manufacturing, agriculture,
banking, real estate, developers, insurance, the service industry
and just about every business sector of Florida’s economy.
I am speaking today in favor of enhanced exploration and drilling
for oil and natural gas in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. Back on
December 12th, AIF among others held a press conference to endorse
at that time the Bush-Pombo Compromise that was before the US
Congress. In fact, that Compromise held great promise for Florida
and our fragile environment and was supported by Congressman Jeff
Miller and many members of the Florida Congressional delegation.
You have heard today, and you will continue to hear that Floridians
do not want oil well or natural gas drilling in the Gulf. Nothing
could be further from the truth. In fact, FloridaInsider did a
statewide poll back in December and their polling results were
indeed very surprising. To the question: Do you favor or oppose
oil and natural gas drilling closer to Florida’s shore that
is currently allowed, the response was - 44% of Floridians
FAVORED drilling, 46% of Floridians OPPOSED drilling and 10% had
no opinion. To my knowledge that is the only statewide
polling numbers done by an authoritative and independent organization
that wasn’t done at the behest of any particular interest
group that I have seen on this important issue. So, the premise
that Floridians oppose exploration or drilling is simply a false
premise.
There are three other concerns often expressed about this issue:
the environment, tourism and military training. With respect to
the environment, there was no significant environmental damage
in the Western and Central Gulf of Mexico from the two Category
5 Hurricanes that plowed through there last summer, because of
improved technology and automatic well-head cut-off valves that
keeps the oil under the seabed if the rig or platform breaks away.
The 7 milion gallon oil spill damage that was cited was at a tank
farm on land, not on the GDM. In fact, in most instances, the
only example of environmental damage from rigs or platforms is
one that is over 30 years old before the current technology was
even developed. The other danger always mentioned is the concern
of “tar balls on our beaches.” That is not a problem
inherent to rigs or platforms, that is a problem associated with
the transportation of oil by ships or barges and what we are discussing
today will have no impact on ships or barges. In fact, for Florida,
all of the oil will still go west, back to Mobile or to Louisiana
because that is where the rail heads are and the gas pipelines.
Regarding tourism, Visit Florida, our official public-private
tourism group downgraded their estimate of the growth of tourism
in Florida on January 2nd when they projected that instead of
7% growth, we would only see 3% growth. Why? They cited part of
the reason as the increased cost associated with family’s
driving or flying to Florida and the increased costs due to higher
fuel prices. Furthermore, since an individual cant see beyond
15 miles over the ocean horizon, if rigs/platforms are kept at
least 100 miles or more from the coastline, it will have absolutely
no deleterious impact on tourism. No tourist is going to complain
about drilling, if they can’t see anything on the Gulf’s
surface. Now, about military training. That is very important
to our nation’s security, and we certainly would not want
to do anything which would mitigate our ability to train our pilots
or other military personnel. But, the Bush-Pombo compromise allowed
for the Secretary’s of the Department of Interior and the
Department of Defense to negotiate a demarcation line that would
be suitable for each and if they couldn’t do so, then President
George Bush would have the final say. We believe that to be the
very best answer possible, because we believe he would make a
fair and equitable decision.
Now, that I have dealt with the negatives, let me share with
you why AIF and our members support enhanced exploration and drilling.
Florida’s dependence on natural gas for energy generation
is very significant. With natural gas prices tripling, it is incumbent
that we allow drilling in the Gulf, given the projections for
“Undiscovered Technically Recoverable Resources in the Outer
Continental Shelf. Right now it is projected that over 232 trillion
cubic feet of natural gas is in the Gulf of Mexico OCS. And importantly,
exploration and drilling could be done on a relatively expedited
basis versus oil drilling. In addition to natural gas for energy
production, natural gas is also the primary ingredient of fertilizer
and fertilizer of course is a key cost component for agriculture,
which is the second largest industry in the Sunshine State. You
have already heard from a representative of that industry today,
so I will not proceed further in this arena, except to say, that
as cost increase for farmers and others in agriculture, so too
will costs increase for consumers. While Florida has a relatively
modest manufacturing base, it is nevertheless a growing and important
one. The increased cost of energy is hurting our manufacturing
base in Florida, which increases the costs of goods to consumers
as well.
We will be submitting our formal comments to the MMS by the April
11th deadline for the Next 5 Year Period, but I wanted you to
know that there is support among Floridians, as evidenced by the
poll I mentioned before, and the business community for more exploration
and drilling. We are not so naive as to believe that drilling
in the GOM is going to solve our problem completely. It must be
part of a comprehensive, across-the-board package of alternatives
that must be advanced if Florida and the nation is going to have
reliable sources of new energy for the 21st Century. Florida is
a major consumer of energy, but we have failed to play a substantial
role as a major provider of energy for the country. We can do
that, and be a part of the solution, or we can stand on the sidelines
and whine about the problem. We choose to be on the side that
wants to help our country and our state, but do it in such a fashion
as to protect our ecology, our tourism industry and our military
needs. Proposals before Congress such as US Senator Pete Domenici’s
energy bill is the basis for moving forward and we encourage the
MMS to move aggressively forward in the next 5 year Plan with
exploration and drilling in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico.
In closing, any suggestion that we shouldn’t have rigs
or platforms in the GDM because of hurricanes, I guess means we
shouldn’t be building homes or businesses in “tornado
alley” or in earthquake prone area’s of California
or the western USA. You can’t justify that logic with inaction,
instead we need to be proactive and plan for these weather challenges
and do it in a fashion that best protects the environment and
our economy.
Thank you.
Below is a
list of video clips from various speakers at the MMS hearing
Mary Hartney
President & Executive Director
Florida Fertilizer & Agrichemical Association
Ed Deese
Retired
David Rogers
Executive Director
Florida Natural Gas Association
Florida Propane Gas Association
Dr. Stanley Marshall
Founder
James Madison Institute
