Rep. Francis Rooney worried panel's approval of offshore drilling bill threatens ban off Florida

WASHINGTON – Florida GOP Rep. Francis Rooney is raising alarm bells about a key House committee’s approval of a bill last week he said threatens Florida’s long-standing moratorium on drilling in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. 

Similar efforts to open up energy exploration on the Outer Continental Shelf have been floated in the past. But Rooney, R-Naples, and others in Florida are worried this latest effort by the House Natural Resources Committee will pass through Congress without extending the ban on drilling within 125 miles of Florida’s Gulf Coast when it expires June 30, 2022.

Unable to convince committee members to extend the ban, Rooney is now hoping to rally support among fellow lawmakers in Florida to back an amendment making the moratorium permanent when the bill reaches the House floor.

"This is existential for Florida," he said. "We cannot have drilling in the Eastern Gulf. It will destroy our tourist economy."

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Florida lawmakers in recent years have fought against attempts to open up energy drilling off its shores to protect the tourist-rich beaches and maritime industries that drive much if its economy. But lawmakers from other Gulf states, notably Louisiana, have tried to help the industry expand in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and other parts of the country.

That effort got a boost last week when the House Committee on Natural Resources passed the “Strengthening the Economy with Critical Untapped Resources to Expand American Energy Act.” Sponsored by House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., the measure would encourage states to approve or expand off-shore drilling by giving them a share of federal revenues from oil and gas drilling activities.

“The SECURE American Energy Act opens up more areas for responsible energy exploration, creating good jobs in communities all across our country,” Scalise said in a release following the committee’s approval. “Our bill empowers states and optimizes onshore resource management by delegating certain permitting functions to state regulatory agencies instead of Washington.”

The bill, which now heads to the House floor for consideration, recognizes the moratorium off Florida’s west coast that began in 2006.

But Rooney, a former businessman who served on one of the world’s leading land and offshore drilling companies, said he's concerned the committee's unwillingness to extend the ban is a troubling signal.

"The fact that they don't want to add that language is a big concern ... because I think the oil industry's going to lay back and wait for it to expire," he said during an interview Monday. "​​​Why not cut off the head of the snake right now?"

Rooney wants to enlist the help of members from other states with coastal tourism, including Georgia and South Carolina, in limiting the scope of the SECURE Act.

Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson last year led opposition to a similar bill in the Senate, fearing the lure of millions in royalties might convince state leaders to open up energy exploration that could harm the environment and the beaches that generate billions for Florida’s economy each year.

At the time, he said encouraging neighboring states to open more water for drilling poses its own threat to Florida, which still remembers the environmental and economic damage from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster that released almost 5 million barrels of oil across the Gulf Coast.

“We have watched the tar balls wash up on the beaches,” Nelson said on the Senate floor. “We've seen the sugary white sands of Pensacola Beach be completely black, covered from oil.

In addition, GOP House members Neal Dunn and Matt Gaetz wrote last month to Defense Secretary James Mattis, warning him that lifting the ban would imperil supersonic air exercises conducted by installations in the Florida Panhandle they represent.

“Allowing oil and gas leasing activities in the areas under moratoria will create insurmountable risks to civilian and military personnel, military assets, and drilling infrastructure,” they wrote.

The Pentagon’s response, delivered in a letter by Acting Defense Undersecretary Anthony M. Kurta, called the moratorium “essential for developing and sustaining our nation’s future combat capabilities.”

In April, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that could eventually open up millions of coastal acres off U.S. shores to oil and gas drilling, including Florida. The America First Offshore Energy Strategy directs Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review the current five-year development plan on the Outer Continental Shelf.

“Our country is blessed with incredible natural resources including abundant offshore oil and natural gas resources, but the federal government has kept 94 percent of these offshore areas closed for exploration and production,” Trump said during a signing ceremony at the White House. “This deprives our country of potentially thousands and thousands of jobs and billions in wealth.”

Within hours of the order’s issuance, industry groups were talking up the possibility of drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

“Exploration in this area is critical to our national security, and we continue to see our neighbors in Mexico and Cuba pursue these opportunities,” American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Jack Gerard said. “The eastern Gulf is in close proximity to existing production and infrastructure, and opening it would most quickly spur investment and economic activity, which could create thousands of jobs and provide billions of dollars in government revenue.”

The Gulf of Mexico, which covers about 160 million off-shore acres, houses about 48.5 billion barrels of recoverable oil and about 141 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to Zinke. More than 97 percent of the nation’s current leases overseen by Interior are in the Gulf.

State residents are increasingly opposed to offshore drilling, according to the University of South Florida-Nielsen Sunshine State Survey. The annual poll showed 44 percent support for the activity in 2014 with 39 percent opposed. Last year, 47 percent opposed off-shore drilling compared to 32 percent who supported it.