Hands Across the Sand-Join us to stop near shore Oil Drilling In Florida Waters

Beyond the environmental issue is the economic issue. Why place your mulit billion dollar tourist and military economy in jeapordy for a future promise of 2-3 billion a year down the road? 120 billion v. 2? Not a single guarenteed job for Floridians? Texas to benefit but not our State while giving up our most valuable commodity?[/quote]

Dead on. Reminds me of this scene from the movie Independence Day:

Gen. Gray: Are you all right?
President Thomas Whitmore: I saw... its thoughts. I saw what they're planning to do. They're like locusts. They're moving from planet to planet... their whole civilization. After they've consumed every natural resource they move on... and we're next. Nuke 'em. Let's nuke the b*stards. <but Dave's idea is probably better 😀>

It is nice to see that this community can jump to it at a moments notice for environmental purposes. I remember well the efforts we put out with the "Trust" working tirelessly to protect the State Forest lands from development, (I don't know we have won that one yet). I have a few contrary ideas on this one though. There is an amazing amount of misinformation that gets passed around as fact in this internet age, and often it gets so distorted that people act on it as if it were absolute fact. There are many facts regarding the effort to allow drilling in the offshore areas of Florida that are totally ignored and may cause us in rushing into erecting protests that are not pertinent.
Fact:
The targets for POTENTIAL drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico are the Jurassic Norphlet formation, 200 million year old sand dunes. This formation produces off Mobile Bay and is at a depth of over 25,000' there. These wells cost in the neighborhood of $100 million to drill. The projection of that trend eastward would put it over 60 miles out, undetectable from our beaches, and in a high temperature and pressure environment which in plain physics could only produce Gas.
Fact:
There is an enormous "Resource" play going on in the interior parts of the US that has unlocked an enormous amounts of natural gas previously thought to be unproducible. This gas is a clean burning fuel that hopefuly will displace some very expensive imported oil. Some estimates are in the order of 100 years of reserves at current rates of consumption, making the economics of drilling 5 miles down for gas very questionable.
Fact:
The moratorium on drilling in the eastern gulf has extended all the way to the Canadian border on the east coast. There is development of gas fields in the Areas of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. The US has no idea what we have out there as no remote sensing of geophysical surveys have been performed since 1975.
Fact:
Cuba is leasing blocks of its offshore to foreign governments to evaluate its northern coast. South Florida already has oil fields on the west coast in the "Sunniland Formation", a Cretaceous limestone about 100 million years old.. There is a very good chance that additional hydrocarbons could be found off the west coast of southern Florida.

I can't help but feel we are preaching from a fragile pulpit when you project images of oil spills and rigs in the surf, ignoring the excellent environmental record of the last two decades when we have tough environmental laws with sharp teeth, and the courage to enforce them. When the price of gasoline reaches $5 a gallon and the weekly visitors that support most of our economy do not appear who are we going to blame? The oil companies!

I am a Professional Geologist licensed in Florida having been in the area since 1980, I have worked in the Oil and Gas business as well as in the environmental side both as a volunteer and as a professional and have sat quietly for a long time here watching ignorance of coastal geological processes lead to "Beach Renourishment " insanity, and the building on top of primary dunes and then being surprised by erosion. It occurs to me this fanatical response to drilling offshore is not our immediate need in South Walton. The need of the panhandle region for a stable economy that can survive the ups and downs of the tourist industry and offer jobs more rewarding than cleaning houses and bussing tables to our youths and allow them to live here as professionals after graduation should be considered with attention to facts rather than fancies.
I really do not believe the offshore drilling effort would impact our area in any event, but we should be considering more than a new Publix as economic development!

im not so sure that was analytical nor reasonable sounded like reductio ad ridiculum to me

side note: way to go dave not only spearheading a noble cause but got your restaurants name all over the state...double threat guy i like it

perhaps once this is defeated and never to return we can stand up against the oil rigs already pumping oil in big cypress and shut them down

My name is Bob Murphy, I live in Grayton. Grew up on the beach in New York where I witnessed what is now the largest “Beach Restoration Project” in the world, (Rockaway Beach), destroyed the vegetation and dunes I grew up on. It was started in 1965 and they are still dredging offshore sediments onto the now dark course grained sand on the beach and have killed all the near shore biota that fed the marine fisheries there. I witnessed the scrapping of the beaches here and the digging of trenches in the shore post Opal with no regard for the permanent damage to the shore. I am a Certified Petroleum Geologist; I am a member of the Society of Independent Professional Earth Scientists, licensed as a Professional Geologist in Florida and Texas. I have worked in Geology for 36 years, and my respect for the earth and our environment are paramount
The concept of there being a difference between Oil Companies and Gas producing entities is not valid. The very same companies that drill for oil drill for gas, they are in reality energy companies. They do not, in my opinion, stand in the way of Natural Gas powered vehicles. In fact the technology for CNG engines and vehicles is well established at least since 1975 when my friend had one. If you look at the Okaloosa Gas trucks you will see they are powered by natural gas. It is amazing to me that we as a nation are insisting to push electric vehicles when the storage technology is still developing, as well as the need to generate and inefficient transport of electricity to the end user. It is presently much less efficient than internal combustion engines. There is certainly a need to advance the storage technology and efficiencies with electric engines, but a bridge is needed to cover that gap. Natural gas is an obvious choice. The problem is we do not have a distribution system which could fill your car with compressed natural gas like you use a filling station, nor do we have one for electricity either. In fact the BTU (energy content) value of oil to an mcf of gas is 6:1, which is one barrel of oil has as much energy as 6,000 cubic feet of methane. This morning the price of oil is near $80, the price of 1,000 cubic feet of gas is about $4. The cost of gas as an energy source is about a third the cost of oil!! That is because we produce almost 100% of our use in the USA and import almost none.
The fact of the matter is when the energy demands get high enough, and prices cause the entire state and country to do something about it, it would be better for us to have made these decisions in a calm manner and have plans and protections in place. By putting it off you place us in the position of having some outside force inject unpopular decisions on us all. The search for Oil and Gas is complex and takes many years to do correctly. If it were opened tomorrow, it would take 10 years to even identify a place to drill and work through all the red tape of federal and State regulations. I trust you have some concept of the MMS and how the process works.
Back in the mid 80’s when we were working to protect the State Forest here in Walton County and I was one of the founding members of “Beach to Bay”, a group of volunteers and environmentalists I was asked what I thought of the proposal to drill off of Pensacola. I answered that they really didn’t want to know what I thought. They insisted that my opinion had value, so I said it would be good for fishing. That led to a diatribe very much like your response,Geo, although it didn’t sound centered on any pertinent geological facts either. I responded to him that I was correct; they did not want to hear my opinion!

Indulge yourself and protest loud. I know it makes you feel good. I was not attempting to change anybody's minds with this post, just tired of hearing how one sided these discussions are.
By the way, who are you and what makes you so smart.

That was not a platform, it was a drilling jack-up rig storm waves were obviously very large, and if you were here for Opal you would have seen cars, trucks, and wrecks washed up on the beach here. Other storms have washed up military drones and ordinance on these beaches as well. I'm not saying there are no risks in this life, or that I am for drilling within 3 miles of our beach. But you can still realize there are two sides to the discussion, and the problems are not easy ignore for either possition.

Beyond the environmental issue is the economic issue. Why place your mulit billion dollar tourist and military economy in jeapordy for a future promise of 2-3 billion a year down the road? 120 billion v. 2? Not a single guarenteed job for Floridians? Texas to benefit but not our State while giving up our most valuable commodity?