Reply #8: Leaders ask for time on oil bill; Jeb Bush pressures FL delegation to vote

[seafan]

Leaders ask for time on oil bill

By WES ALLISON
June 27, 2006

WASHINGTON — With time running out and little consensus on how to handle a bill to allow drilling 100 miles off their beaches, Florida’s members of Congress took the only route they could agree on: They sought a delay.

But House Republican leaders said late Tuesday that a delay was unlikely, and a vote was still scheduled for Thursday. And as impatience grows with Florida’s intransigence on off-shore oil and gas exploration, attorneys for the House Resources Committee drafted an amendment to cut Florida from the bill altogether.


That would leave the state without the bill’s protections against near-shore drilling and force its congressional delegation to fight drilling forces in Congress alone, at a time when the political pressure to drill has never been stronger.


Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush flew to Washington late Tuesday to urge Florida’s congressional delegation to vote for the bill, which would ban drilling up to 50 miles off the nation’s shores, unless states opted to allow it closer. States also could ask the Interior Department to ban drilling up to 100 miles offshore as well.


“The choice is pretty clear: Either you engage and make a difference in terms of making sure Florida’s interests are protected, or I guess you go down in defeat and claim that you were righteous,” Bush said before leaving Tallahassee.


Many Florida lawmakers weren’t prepared to yield, however.

snip

Mr. Micromanager, stop inserting yourself into this fight. You failed when you had the opportunity to protect Florida. You were for it, before you were against it.

Sheesh.