Gov. Charlie Crist is reconsidering his opposition to drilling off Florida’s shores, a sentiment he used to share with former governers Lawton Chiles, Dem., and Jeb Bush, Rep.

Back in August 1993, disaster struck as 300,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil spilled off the shore of Tampa Bay – devastating 15 miles of Florida beaches. ”We had several thousand sea turtle hatchlings die,” says D.T. Minich, head of the St. Petersburg/ Clearwater Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.  “It was a disaster … and we don’t want that to happen again.”  The effects on the environment and, most poignantly for politicians, on Florida’s precious tourism industry have kept off shore drilling initiatives at bay.

But the oil industry has been making new pushes in Washington and Tallahassee for off shore drilling.  Gov. Crist says, “We’ve got to review exactly what the policy is and make sure it can provide energy diversification. But at the same time, we’ve got to protect our beautiful beaches.”  The ‘policy’ he refers to is an amendment approved by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources that allows oil and gas drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, 45 miles off Florida’s west coast and just 10 miles off beaches in Florida’s panhandle.  The amendment is headed to the floor of the full Senate.

Source St Augustine News

The Cap and Trade Bill has passed the House of Representatives today.  Votes were 219-212. This bill will be responsible for fining and penalizing the emission of Carbon Dioxide.

The US government will set a limit or cap on the amount of a pollutant that can be emitted. Companies or other groups will be issued emission permits and are required to hold an equivalent number of allowances (or credits), which will represent the right to emit a specific amount. The total amount of allowances and credits cannot exceed the cap, limiting total emissions to that level. Companies that need to increase their emission allowance must buy credits from those who pollute less. The transfer of allowances will be referred to as a trade. In effect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions by more than was needed. Thus, in theory, those who can easily reduce emissions most cheaply will do so, achieving the pollution reduction at the lowest possible cost to society.

The only group that is currently doing a cap and trade program is the European Union.

In Central Florida the break down of Representative’s votes is:
Alan Grayson – Yea
Adam Putnam – Nay
Bill Posey – Nay
Kathy Castor – Yea

FULL LIST OF VOTES

According to the Heritage foundation it is a jobs killing bill. They have released a fact sheet located here.  Several groups have come out urging a call to action on this bill, including Americans for Prosperity and the Campaign for Liberty

Americans for Prosperity Spokesperson had this to say about the bill:

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Jesse Benton from the Campaign for Liberty had this to say:

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His organization has released the following statement and is urging its members to contact members of congress. “HR 2454, the “Cap-and-Trade” bill scheduled to come before the house on Friday, is nothing more than a thinly disguised energy tax that will hit every single American.

Energy companies will pass the costs of their new regulations through to consumers in the form of huge price increases, meaning higher electric bills, gas prices, and increased costs across the board.

Barack Obama has estimated the costs of this legislation to American taxpayers to be over 650 BILLION dollars over the next eight years, and that figure is no doubt just a fraction of the real cost.

But even that modest estimate amounts to hundreds of dollars a year in increased living expenses for every family — and will more likely cost thousands a year.

Higher costs of doing business also means companies will be forced to lay off more workers. This current economic crisis is no time for Congress to consider both raising prices on hard-working Americans AND costing them their jobs.”

An aide in Adam Putnam’s (R-Bartow) office said that he has not made his final decision yet and is still reading through the bill.

Kathy Castor (D-Tampa) released a press release in May praising the bill.  You can read her Press Release here

On The Web: Americans for Prosperity, Campaign for Liberty, The Heritage Foundation