Florida's U.S. senators to skip shuttle launch to fight drilling

[Robbien]

U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez are skipping Tuesday's scheduled space shuttle launch to keep tabs on an energy bill they fear could lead to oil drilling off Florida's coast.

Martinez was in Orlando on Monday and originally planned to remain in Florida for the launch, but returned to Washington instead. Nelson canceled travel plans to Florida.

"I wish I could be there, but low and behold — It's a fight every day to keep them from drilling off of Florida's coast," said Nelson. "We've just got to watch out, otherwise if we let our guard down we'll suddenly have oil rigs off Florida's coast."


http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/florida/article/0,2071,NPDN_14910_3953295,00.html

So Nelson selling out Alaska on ANWR in return for a RNC promise not to drill in Florida was all for naught.

[Erika]

1. Yep

The world corporatists are in control completely. Jeb Bush even asked W not to drill (tongue in cheek as he laughed the whole time)

Say goodbye to the U.S. as we knew it or hoped for it. I don't know what we say to our kids and grandkids for selling them out.

I just can't salute the gas guzzler SUV's with the patriotic magnetic ribbons on them. They should be disgraced.

[ThoughtCriminal]

2. Gee, using standard GOP rhetoric on ANWR

doesn't this mean they are supporting terrorists?

[DS1]

3. Good! Put oil rigs off the coast of Florida

Fuck you! Your policies help feed the machine, you might as well give up the 'scenery'

[jody]

4. They might not want to be present if another disaster occurs. n/t

[truthisfreedom]

5. insanity. no rigs off Florida. far too volatile. end of story.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. kick

[seafan]

7. It was Mel Martinez who made this "deal", not Bill Nelson.

U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 109th Congress - 1st Session


Question: On the Amendment (Cantwell Amdt. No. 168 )
Vote Number: 52 Vote Date: March 16, 2005, 01:45 PM
Required For Majority: 1/2 Vote Result: Amendment Rejected
Amendment Number: S.Amdt. 168 to to S.Con.Res. 18 (Appropriations resolution FY2006, Budget )
Statement of Purpose: To strike section 201(a)(4) relative to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Vote Counts: YEAs 49
NAYs 51

Florida: Martinez (R-FL), Nay Nelson (D-FL), Yea

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00052


And a local Florida paper's take on "sellout Mel":

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050318/NEWS/503180335/1036


What is interesting now is that Martinez seems to be suddenly standing up to protect Florida. In the past, he had notable Democratic leanings, but when he accepted work as HUD Secretary in the * Admin, and then reluctantly agreed to run for US Senate at the grooming of *, he succumbed to corruptive influence.

Maybe he's figured out how he has been used, just like all the others? Could be.

[Robbien]

8. Thanks.

Could have sworn it was Nelson so its good to know Mel was the sellout in this case.

[Doremus]

9. Why okay for Alaska but not Florida?

Kind of like wishing hurricanes would change course and land on some other city or area, aka the 'anywhere but my backyard' syndrome I guess.

Anyway, there will come a day when Florida begs to be drilled, assuming Big Oil doesn't have its way first.

Peak oil will have a way of changing how we all think.

[Robbien]

10. But oil drilled in ANWR will more than likely not be used by the US

the RNC blocked a provision being added to the bill requiring the oil be kept in the US.

[Mika]

11. Stopping drilling = high gas prices (which is good for BushCrimeCo).

If Floridians don't want oil rigs on their shorelines, then ban gas guzzling SUVs in Florida.

[seafan]

12. More info from St. Pete Times on Mel's "negotiations" with *

snip--

Martinez acknowledged that the arctic refuge is a stalking-horse for what the petroleum industry really wants: permission to drill in the eastern gulf. But he said he cut a deal with the Bush administration to protect Florida in exchange for his arctic vote. "Through my negotiations with the administration, I have been able to better secure the position of Florida's pristine beaches for years to come," he said in a press release.

snip--

Martinez says he persuaded President Bush to promise to extend a moratorium on drilling near Florida beaches until 2012. Such a claim is subterfuge. The moratorium was adopted by President Clinton in 1998 and already had a 2012 expiration date, which Bush accepted soon after he took office in 2001.

Martinez also said he received a letter from Interior Secretary Gale Norton, that great proponent of the extractive value of public land, saying that as the department prepares its next five-year drilling plan, "we will exclude from the very beginning any area of the eastern gulf within 100 miles of the state of Florida."

The problem is, the only leases granted in the eastern gulf so far are more than 200 miles from Tampa Bay. So Norton's 100-mile exclusion is actually a setback for this part of the state. Florida's senior senator, Bill Nelson, had already won a concession from Norton in 2001 that put most of a 3-million-acre area in the eastern gulf, called Tract 181, off limits through 2007. If anything, Martinez's "deal" weakens that agreement.

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/03/18/Opinion/Thanks_a_lot__Sen_Mar.shtml


They are selling us down the river, every moment of every day.

Mr. *, the people are coming.

[kath]

13. Ummm, hello Brendan Farrington, AP writer, and all your proofreaders

and editors -- it's "LO and behold", not "LOW and behold".

It really bugs me when newspapers and magazines (who really ought to know better) let stupid mistakes like this get through.

[Straight Shooter]

14. I noticed that, too. Journalists aren't too bright these days.

Or maybe Farrington was thinking, "Wow, Martinez is really low," and it's a Freudian slip :)