Drilling ban bills advance in legislature

A bipartisan bill championed by State Rep. Jason Shoaf, to ban drilling in environmentally sensitive areas, got unanimous support in the first of its committee stops in the Florida House of Representatives.

After getting a 16-0 blessing in the Resources & Disasters Subcommittee, it was now set to be heard Tuesday, April 8 in the State Affairs Committee.

“This literally strikes close to home,” Shoaf told the subcommittee March 25. “I am in the natural gas business, which has been in my family for 50 years, so it’s personal to me.”

He told the subcommittee that as areas of critical state concern, both Apalachicola Bay and the Keys “are so close in sensitivity. It’s hard to explain unless you’ve lived there.

“This bill is going to put an end to oil exploration and drilling (there). We’re wanting to shut it down,” he said.

If approved by the legislature, and signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the bill, which is co-sponsored by Democrat Alison Tant, would create a “balancing test” that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection would have to consider in deciding whether to issue drilling permits near water bodies.

“DEP must balance the measures in place to protect the natural resources with the potential harm…when determining whether a natural resource will be adequately protected in the event of an accident or a blowout from oil or gas drilling or exploration activities,” reads the staff analysis. 

The test would assess the potential impact of an accident or a blowout, with the test including the community’s current condition, hydrological connection, uniqueness, location, fish and wildlife use, time lag, and the potential cost of restoration.

Also moved along in the Senate is a similar bill sponsored by State Sen. Corey Simon, although the House version also includes a drilling ban within 10 miles of the state’s three National Estuarine Research Reserves. These reserves are in the Apalachicola Bay, Guana Tolomato Matanzas and Rookery Bay.

“We want them to pay attention to the potential impact on the environment, to the economy, to things not necessarily front and center,” said Shoaf. “It would ensure seafood workers, tourists, and aquaculture are protected.”

He noted that during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, “oil didn’t get into the bay but it shut it down. No one wanted to come near anywhere that could potentially have oil. The oil never got to us but it killed our economy anyway, just the threat of it.”

Eric Hamilton, with the American Petroleum Institute, was the lone speaker against passage of the bill.

Last year the Department of Environmental Protection approved a draft permit for the Louisiana-based Clearwater Land & Minerals Fla. to drill an exploratory well in an unincorporated part of Calhoun County, near the Apalachicola River. The environmental group Apalachicola Riverkeeper challenged the draft permit, and the case is pending at the state Division of Administrative Hearings.

Shoaf has said that the bill would not stop the draft permit that the department issued last year for exploratory drilling, but would stand in the way of additional permits needed to commercially produce and sell oil from the site.