Florida's Republican State Legislators - Oh teh Crazy Part Trois!

Orlando area Republican State Legislator Dean Cannon (R-Orlando, HD35) is sponsoring a bill to allow oil drilling 3 to 10 miles off Florida's coasts because no doubt he's gonna get a big campaign contribution for it. Today the Orlando Sentinel published a mislead "My Word" Op-Ed from on it.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-edpcannon-my-word-drilling-0428042809apr28,0,6164921.story?track=rss

Here's my response on their blog:

Dean Cannon is apparently now in the pocket of big oil interests instead of listening to his constituents.

If we allow oil companies to come in here and drill we are going to hear a lot of pretty talk from guys like Dean telling us how they can do it and be respectful of the environment - until the cameras get shut off and the press stops paying attention - then it will be business as usual.

If you want a coastline that looks like East Texas or Louisiana with oil rigs everywhere then Dean Cannon's your guy.

If you think that tourists are going to continue to come to Florida beaches if we start throwing up oil derricks in Florida waters in sight of the beaches then Dean's got a bridge in Tampa Bay to sell you.

Regarding Dean Cannon's leading nonsense about our gasoline supply lines being tenuous in Florida, allowing oil companies to drill off Florida's shores will do NOTHING to mitigate that situation. Oil is NOT gasoline. It takes a REFINERY to convert crude oil into gasoline. There are no refineries in Florida.

Even if we allow drilling it would not equal additional gasoline, just a bunch of ugly oil derricks, a few people getting rich and the rest of us having to look at their oil platforms and hoping it doesn't drive away the tourists or result in a catastrophic oil spill.

We really need to build solar and wind facilities in Florida and yes, I'll go off the Democratic reservation and say we need more nuclear plants. We need to move to electric cars and away from oil altogether unless we are willing to accept a much smaller Florida in the future where Kissimmee is the new "South Beach" and most of South Florida is 20 feet under the sea.

We don't need more oil drilling in Florida waters Dean, we need a new Representative for Florida District 35 - one who will treat Florida's environment like the irreplaceable asset that it really is.

I was at the beach this morning and all I could see was some waves and dolphins, a few pelicans, and some seagulls. I kept thinking how much better it would look to have little black tar balls squishing around my toes and some nice sulphur smell to go along with the suntan lotion.

I should have asked all the russian tourists what they thought of the drilling idea.

Question: why can Russians afford to come here to the West Coast of Florida and stay for a week or two, and I can't afford to go to the hotels on the West Coast of Florida for a week or two? :wtf: