GOP prepares stealth legislation to open FL coasts to oil/gas exploration

[seafan]

Rising fuel prices and a hurricane-battered national oil supply have given Republicans in Congress and the oil industry new ammunition to launch a drive to open up Florida waters to oil and gas exploration.

Talks begin today in Washington, D.C., that could lead to drilling off the Florida shoreline -- particularly along the Panhandle coast, where petroleum companies believe gas reserves are huge.

The two-pronged approach -- in a House energy bill and the federal budget -- has created a rift in Florida's congressional delegation, which once fiercely and nearly unanimously defended the state against any efforts to drill offshore.

--snip

The measure, expected to be tucked into the House budget plan and the House energy bill, would eliminate the existing ban on drilling off Florida coasts, auction off leases to the gas-rich region along the Florida-Alabama line known as Lease Sale 181 within three months and limit the 125-mile buffer to five years for gas drilling and 10 years for oil drilling.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/12758560.htm

These people never, never sleep.

It's past time to issue a moratorium on all GOP legislation/judicial nominees, as * and his merry band of racketeers have now forfeited their right to call themselves Americans.