The following op-ed from Bob Morrison, an individual supporter of Consumer Energy Alliance – Florida, appeared in The Tallahassee Democrat newspaper.
April 8, 2010 Finally, President Obama announced that he is in favor of drilling for oil and natural gas off the Gulf Coast of Florida.
This came at a crucial time for our state. Just a few weeks ago, Florida reached a record high unemployment rate of 12.2 percent. The Legislature is looking at cutting school funding and state workers’ salaries, raising college tuition and abolishing retiree’s subsidies.
Exploration and development of Florida’s offshore resources would address state revenue and jobs, and decrease our dependency on foreign oil. Florida has the talent and technology to do it now and do it safely.
The legislators who oppose offshore drilling refer to an oil spill that took place 40 years ago and give no consideration to the record since then or the development of safety equipment and procedures.
NASA has many talented system engineers who live and work in Florida. The federal government uses NASA engineers to evaluate automobile safety and technology. Let’s put some of our engineers, who will soon be unemployed with the shuttle program ending, to work evaluating the safety of and development of offshore resources. If Florida’s space system engineers can put a man on the moon, they can safely develop Florida’s offshore resources, create employment and improve state revenue.
Florida’s promise to reduce energy costs, reduce unemployment, and improve our education system, but not drill, is like promising hungry people food but never tilling the fertile soil in one’s domain.
