Offshore Oil Drilling
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Gov. Charlie Crist urged leaders of a U.S. Senate committee Thursday to reject new legislation that could bring offshore oil and natural gas drilling up to 45 miles from Florida's beaches. The bill would cast aside a delicate compromise that Congress passed last year to open new Gulf of Mexico waters off Florida to drilling but set a 125-mile buffer zone, Crist wrote in a letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the panel's ranking member. "Many critics of last year's compromise argued that it was simply the camel's nose under the tent and I truly hope that this is not the case since the ink is not even dry on The Gulf of Mexico Energy Act," Crist wrote. That measure protects the state's ecology, tourism and military training conducted off Florida's coast while addressing the nation's energy needs by allowing new exploration in remote areas of the gulf, Crist contended.  Sponsors of the new legislation, Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, argue that new technology has cut the risk of oil spills and other drilling related pollution. Florida's two senators, Republican Mel Martinez and Democrat Bill Nelson, also have declared their opposition to the proposal introduced last week.
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