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Tell Your Senator No More Offshore Drilling

Protect Florida's Coast

Big Oil is trying to sneak a giant giveaway through Congress. Just three years after it scored 8.3 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico in return for protecting the areas within 125 miles from the Florida coast, the oil companies are coming back for more, attempting to drill the remaining areas off of Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Oceana is launching a major offensive to protect the Florida Coast from expanded oil and gas drilling and we need your help!

Please tell your Senators that offshore drilling is not the answer.

November 21, 2009

Subject:

Dear Senator,

I am writing today to urge you to protect Florida’s beaches and our oceans from offshore oil drilling.  In 2006, The President, Congress, the State of Florida, and conservation interests all agreed to protect Florida’s west coast by signing into law the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act.  However, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted to open millions of acres of the eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling. The measure would allow drilling within 10 miles of Pensacola, and shrink the current 125-mile-wide buffer elsewhere along Florida's west coast to just 45 miles. In doing so, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources is undoing a 2006 agreement to protect Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Please keep this language out of the final bill.  Urge your colleagues in the Senate to stand by the 2006 law and let Senator Reid know that you will not support any legislation that threatens Florida’s coasts with expanded offshore drilling.

The threat to our oceans, coasts and wildlife is too great to allow more offshore drilling.  Additionally, in the face of climate change, more drilling makes even less sense. Producing and burning more oil will add fuel to ocean acidification, and we should be shifting to renewable energy instead to protect our oceans. Not only are our coasts and oceans home to fish and marine wildlife, but they also generate jobs in a variety of sectors such as fishing and tourism.  In 2005, Florida’s oceans and beaches contributed more than $20 billion to the GDP.

Americans need a new energy future, not panicked short term measures.  The 2006 agreement to protect Florida’s coast should not be undermined by Big Oil.  I hope I can count on you to stand up for our coasts.

Thank you.

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Oceana | Protecting the World's Oceans

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Tell Your Senator No More Offshore Drilling