House votes down offshore drilling

[royalfan5]

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060518-114116-6812r.htm

Now Mr. Florida republican, don't ya think that high oil prices are going to hurt your precious tourism industry too? Plus I bet the oil rigs would pay a lot better than tourism industry jobs.

[StoopTroup]

Amusement Parks are much better for the enviroment.

[slickdawg]

MY oil buddy said he thought the states (FL/CA) that are so anti-drilling
should absorb the increase in crude prices. "let them pat $7 a gallon, they'll
love drilling"

[royalfan5]

Couldn't they just decorate the rigs up so they look like they are part of the scenery?

[SoonerInFla]

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060518-114116-6812r.htm

Now Mr. Florida republican, don't ya think that high oil prices are going to hurt your precious tourism industry too? Plus I bet the oil rigs would pay a lot better than tourism industry jobs.


You'd lose that bet. The oil dollar in Florida could never challenge the dollars tourism brings in. I'm not against drilling off Florida. In fact, I'm for it. The findings off the coast of Florida consist of major pockets of Natural Gas. Not saying you wouldn't pass through some oil to get to it but it's natural gas that they're after. Bottom line is that we know it's there and eventually we will go get it.

[jacru]

You'd lose that bet. The oil dollar in Florida could never challenge the dollars tourism brings in. I'm not against drilling off Florida. In fact, I'm for it. The findings off the coast of Florida consist of major pockets of Natural Gas. Not saying you wouldn't pass through some oil to get to it but it's natural gas that they're after. Bottom line is that we know it's there and eventually we will go get it.
I think it was a comparison of individual job vs. individual job. e.g. I bet a oil rig worker makes more than a ride operator at Disneyworld.:)

[Flagstaffsooner]

Couldn't they just decorate the rigs up so they look like they are part of the scenery?We have cell towers that are diguised as pine trees.
http://danbricklin.com/log/41a38d80.jpg

[royalfan5]

You'd lose that bet. The oil dollar in Florida could never challenge the dollars tourism brings in. I'm not against drilling off Florida. In fact, I'm for it. The findings off the coast of Florida consist of major pockets of Natural Gas. Not saying you wouldn't pass through some oil to get to it but it's natural gas that they're after. Bottom line is that we know it's there and eventually we will go get it.
I'm not saying that the Oil Industry would be bigger, but the average wage of the rank and file worker is higher in the Oil industry than in tourism. I wouldn't see why Florida couldn't have both anyway.

[Jimminy Crimson]

We have cell towers that are diguised as pine trees.
http://danbricklin.com/log/41a38d80.jpg

peek-a-boo!

I've seen some funny disguises, from flagpoles to palm trees, to oak looking trees that look out of place in winter b/c they are still green :confused:.

[SoonerInFla]

I'm not saying that the Oil Industry would be bigger, but the average wage of the rank and file worker is higher in the Oil industry than in tourism. I wouldn't see why Florida couldn't have both anyway.

I see what you're saying but even looking at the average pay of the rank and file worker you'd still be incorrect. There was a time when that would not have been the case, but now the majority of the workers in the offshore oilfield are contract hands. They do not work directly for Chevron, Exxon etc.

I've worked off and on in the offshore oilfield since the early 80's. The only thing that has saved the Florida coast from the damage caused by drilling off of Louisianna is that the predominant flow of the Gulf of Mexico goes from east to west. If that were backwards, I can assure you that the Florida coast would look like the ****holes that the Louisianna and texass coasts' are now.

[OklahomaTuba]

We can't drill off shore for our oil, but Cuba is doing it, and letting China in on it as well.

[SoonerBorn68]

Amusement Parks are much better for the enviroment.

Really? How many cars are parked in Disney World's parking lot at any given time? How many of those cars leak? How much exhaust to those cars create driving there? How much trash does Disney World create daily? I'd like to see how many cubic tons they create a year...and how much land it takes to dump it on.

[Scott D]

Amusement Parks are much better for the enviroment.

I was planning on suing a few for noise pollution ;)

[royalfan5]

We can't drill off shore for our oil, but Cuba is doing it, and letting China in on it as well.
Wouldn't that still help the United States in a round-about way because it increases the overall world oil supply? If China is getting oil from Cuba they wouldn't need to compete as hard against the U.S. for Oil supplies elsewhere.

[SoonerInFla]

I beleive that in this day and age we could do it safely. However, there is allways that risk. I grew up minutes from Pensacola Beach and have spent alot of time out there. As I type this I'm sitting in a tower at the end of the Mississippi River in Louisianna looking out over the River into the Gulf. I did a quick count and can see at least 70 platforms. If someone were drowning, I'd certainly jump in and help em. But you can bet your ***, I'd bee-line it straight to the nearest shower when it was over.

[SoonerInFla]

Really? How many cars are parked in Disney World's parking lot at any given time? How many of those cars leak? How much exhaust to those cars create driving there? How much trash does Disney World create daily? I'd like to see how many cubic tons they create a year...and how much land it takes to dump it on.


And how much Natural Gas did these cars burn up enroute to these parking lots? That is what they're after off the coast of Florida.

[SoonerBorn68]

Prolly none unless farmer Joe decided to take his clampett mobile for a road trip. :D

I think you missed my point. Every industry has waste & comparing a rig to an amusement park for environment friendliness is prolly a wash at best.

[SoonerInFla]

68...I caught that too. My point is that it is really not oil they're after. They have exploratory wells allready in place that have discovered large amounts of Natural Gas. There's plenty of oil off the coasts of our other states but they're main interest in Fla. is gas.

I'm not a tree hugger. Last year a heard of anti-drillers pulled up in my neighborhood in a suburban and proceeded to knocking on doors. I asked em if they just got out of that gas guzzler when they got up on my porch. They said yes and I told em to come talk to me when they were on horseback.

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

We can't drill off shore for our oil, but Cuba is doing it, and letting China in on it as well.Mexico is continuing with new drilling in the Gulf of Mex., too. Really makes our "environmentally friendly" politicians look as foolish as they are.

[MamaMia]

I have been told that there is plenty of gas oil and gas in the ground, so why drill under the water?

[Vaevictis]

I have been told that there is plenty of gas oil and gas in the ground, so why drill under the water?

Because different types of oil sources have different extraction costs. For example, there's plenty of shale oil available in North America, but it's expensive compared to other sources.

[OUinFLA]

I would be thrilled if they drilled off of Florida's coast, but for a purely selfish reason. Those offshore platforms are huge fish magnets! And I love fishing.

As to the comment about the drilling payroll income compared to the tourist payroll income. There is no comparison, the tourist industry in Florida is measured in the billions to our economy. We survive on it. We have never had nor do we anticipate ever having to have a state income tax because of it. If the state needs more money, we just simply add another tax on the tourism related industries. It's a cash cow in the finest sense.

As to the impact on our beaches, even though a breache in oil supply from off shore platforms is rare in occurance, it only takes one to wipe out a season for all the business on the effected coast. Most small businesses cant last a year without the tourists. Last year we had a horrible case of Red Tide off the St Pete area and tourism dropped by about 35-40% during the outbreak. It financially hurt many small businesses to the point of going out of business.

Ill take the tourist industry over the off shore industry for doller input to the state, however, I'd love to have those fish magnets sitting out there in range of my boat.