Offshore drilling again!

my gently worded letter:

Are you insane? Your buddies up in the district may be giving you the words you apparently want to hear, but are you listening to the voters who put you in office? This bill will affect everyone who lives along the coast, and all revenue that comes with the visitors. Tourists aren't going to Immokolee. One good spill and we're screwed, and as you're aware, spills are inevitible. If you still lived here, you'd be thinking differently on this. Retract this for the good of all Floridians. Please call me to explain.

my gently worded letter:

Are you insane? Your buddies up in the district may be giving you the words you apparently want to hear, but are you listening to the voters who put you in office? This bill will affect everyone who lives along the coast, and all revenue that comes with the visitors. Tourists aren't going to Immokolee. One good spill and we're screwed, and as you're aware, spills are inevitible. If you still lived here, you'd be thinking differently on this. Retract this for the good of all Floridians. Please call me to explain.

:clap_1:

It seems to me that with all of the political clout the St. Joe Company has, and given the fact that they have a big interest along the panhandle coastline, that we should be hearing of their opposition to this proposal.

It seems to me that with all of the political clout the St. Joe Company has, and given the fact that they have a big interest along the panhandle coastline, that we should be hearing of their opposition to this proposal.

If the oil industry were Goliath, St JOE wouldn't even be oxen poo on David's sandal.......this battle is WAY out of their league.

Market cap of XOM is $405.4B (and heading up); JOE is $3.4B (and going down).

ahhh yes, however St. Joe's voice is much louder than yours or mine. It is their responsibility to stand up in this battle as well. They also possess resources that surpass any private citizens. Offshore drilling is totally unecessary. Please do not ruin my home with greed as the motivating factor.

Conservation is more important than currency.

ahhh yes, however St. Joe's voice is much louder than yours or mine. It is their responsibility to stand up in this battle as well. They also possess resources that surpass any private citizens. Offshore drilling is totally unecessary. Please do not ruin my home with greed as the motivating factor.

Conservation is more important than currency.

Exactly my point. St. Joe being a real estate powerhouse, has a long history of behind the scenes politicking, so that proposals such as these do not negatively affect their business in any way. Now, having multibillion dollar oil exploration occurring offshore of its more than 40 miles of coastline, will certainly prove detrimental to its real estate business practices. Who wants to pay $2 million for a home at Watercolor or Watersound, when the Gulf looks like lake water and there are rigs dotting the horizon?

I lived next to the world's largest oil refinery in Saudi Arabia, located on the Persian Gulf (-which incidently also has beautiful white sand beaches and emerald green water) and had to see several oil spills wash up onto our beach- horrible!

You can not image how awful the sight of thousands of barrels of nasty black goo slowly drifting onto a white sand beach looks. Years later the oil, mixed with sand to form tar, was still burried in pockets along the beach.

I can't stand the thought of the same thing happening here.

tim-MAY, I encourage to copy and paste your post above, into an email to the politicians.

Letters to the politicians do not have to be complicated and full of statistical details. Simply speak your mind, and let them know that you have a voice. If you don't, expect to be crushed by the heavy hands which make the laws.

So here is my letter, which I just emailed to Senator Nelson:

Senator Nelson,
I don't know if you have ever visited the beaches in north west Florida, but I can guess by reading your position on the offshore drilling, that you have never visited with the people living in the beautiful communities along the Gulf Coast. If you had, you would realize that these communities are built from tourism, people from the entire south eastern US, and well beyond. By allowing offshore drilling, you are telling us that you don't care if the oil leaks will kill our beautiful communities. Currently, in our community, we argue over the whiteness of the sand that is allowed to shore-up people's Gulf Front property. Perhaps, we should all be writing you letters encouraging you to vote against drilling in the Gulf for oil, which is sure to send black oil onto our beaches. Please allow my voice to speak for the thousands of people who will not write you a letter. and believe me, there are thousands in this area who feel as I do regarding offshore drilling.

If you give in to Big Oil, which lines your pockets, you are selling us out, and you should be ashamed to walk into the Capital, wearing a smile. Think about the people who voted you into office, not Big Oil, who may have paid your way. Trying to pay back the money which put you in office is costly, and morally incorrect, in my opinion. Please dig into you soul and do that which is right. Please take a stand against drilling in the Gulf. Forget about the money, and think about the people. Think about nature. Think about spending money on giving incentives for alternative, renewable fuel sources. Think about talking to auto manufacturers, and give them incentives for creating more efficient vehicles. Give larger incentives to the people purchasing fuel effecient autos rather than those people purchasing work vehicles wieghing over 6000 pounds, which have a negative impact on not only the environment, but also, the highways.

It is never to late to start thinking about doing the right thing. Vote No Drilling in the Gulf.

nice letter there sj. I too wrote him one, will maybe write 5 more!!! I am sure some lackey in his office reads them and not himself, but its worth a shot. I hope everyone will SAY somethinng about this and not sit idly by.

oh, sj, I heard you are the master commander of sowal. true?

nice letter there sj. I too wrote him one, will maybe write 5 more!!! I am sure some lackey in his office reads them and not himself, but its worth a shot. I hope everyone will SAY somethinng about this and not sit idly by.

oh, sj, I heard you are the master commander of sowal. true?

You are correct about the senator not reading them all. Typically, the staffer may print them out and sort them into the pro and con piles and give an overview of any particular issues. The staffer may also pull a representive sample letter stating with a few highlighted lines for the fors and agins. However, quantity can and does matter. Politicians know that most people don't bother to write in. Usually, it is the vocal minority shouting the loudest, but often times, their numbers are low. Believe me, when a large group of unconnected concerned people write, they do take note.

my letter will probably not get to his desk, since it was so gentle ;-) but at least it will add to the thickness of the con pile. write folks.

jr

my letter will probably not get to his desk, since it was so gentle ;-) but at least it will add to the thickness of the con pile. write folks.

jr

I don't think his staff reads his letters. I wrote one about the Middle East Crisis and got a computer form letter thanking me for my thoughts on ... Stem Cell Research....

I can't wait to be in line to vote him out!

In the wake of the disaster, Congress enacted the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) designed to prevent another such ecological catastrophe in US waters. Congress mandated that the Coast Guard enforce new standards for the transportation of oil, including the requirement of a double-tug escort in sensitive waterways and the installation of leak detection devices on all oil tankers. OPA gave the Coast Guard one year to complete this assignment. Yet to date, the Coast Guard has failed to fully implement the law.


This is from http://www.bluewaternetwork.org/campaign_ss_spills.shtml


Note the relative lack of spills around FL, compared to the rest of the Gulf. Anyone want to bet what the impact of offshore driling will have?

those ****ers

OK, I sent an e-mail.

Besides the potential ecosystem damage, we might need Beach Runner's carpet cleaner (sorry BR, forgot the name) to get those tracked in "tar balls" out of the carpet. I've heard areas along the TX Gulf coast have to deal with that as a problem.

.

Great news! It's being reported in the lounge that Carl Rove owns property in Rosemary Beach. Maybe we can show him what it feels like to be scared and exploited if he does not help us out on this issue.

OK, I sent an e-mail.

Besides the potential ecosystem damage, we might need Beach Runner's carpet cleaner (sorry BR, forgot the name) to get those tracked in "tar balls" out of the carpet. I've heard areas along the TX Gulf coast have to deal with that as a problem.

.

Two-packs of Capture are on sale now at Home Depot in PCB ... got some last week, in an effort to defray BR's dishwasher repair bills. Did not pick up the pre-treatment though. Necessary for those tar balls.

I'm as as the next person about gulf drilling -- the fact that we have spent so many years guzzling and wasting opportunities to find alternatives to oil is outrageous -- but I don't know that Sen. Nelson has a choice. If he doesn't back this, drilling is going to be even closer. Frankly, I'm surprised he was able to persuade people to go as far as 125 miles -- I thought if we got 100 miles, we would be lucky. The climate in the House especially is not at all sympathetic toward giving Florida any more special protection. Mel Martinez was much more willing to give up the boundaries than Nelson has been.

There is nobody I trust more to give me an agenda-free view of what's really happening in Florida than this guy. Here's Howard Troxler on gulf drilling. It just isn't pretty. Few people outside the state seem to care about protecting us anymore.

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/29/Columns/Gulf_drilling_choice_.shtml

Saw a sign in my room on the Oregon Coast. Might need some for Florida now.
Caution Tar(oil) on the beach might ruin carpets!

OK, I sent an e-mail.

Besides the potential ecosystem damage, we might need Beach Runner's carpet cleaner (sorry BR, forgot the name) to get those tracked in "tar balls" out of the carpet. I've heard areas along the TX Gulf coast have to deal with that as a problem.

.

is right, Rita. Can you say "Galveston". In a former life, when my children were young, we vacationed in Galveston every year. I cannot tell you how many times, we had tar all over everything we owned and how we had to clean our feet (and everything else) with baby oil or some other tar remover, before we could even go in the house. I can imagine that the owners of those homes spent many a dollar re-upholstering their furniture and replacing carpet quite frequently because renters did not take care to remove the tar/and or baby oil! The first time I came to Florida, I could not even believe how wonderful and clean the beaches were! The saddest thing about Galveston back then to me was that the tar was just a way of life there.

is right, Rita. Can you say "Galveston". In a former life, when my children were young, we vacationed in Galveston every year. I cannot tell you how many times, we had tar all over everything we owned and how we had to clean our feet (and everything else) with baby oil or some other tar remover, before we could even go in the house. I can imagine that the owners of those homes spent many a dollar re-upholstering their furniture and replacing carpet quite frequently because renters did not take care to remove the tar/and or baby oil! The first time I came to Florida, I could not even believe how wonderful and clean the beaches were! The saddest thing about Galveston back then to me was that the tar was just a way of life there.

I did not know about the tar. So I went looking. Here is an interesting article:

Tar balls

One thing it talks about is how the Gulf currents conspire to wash the tar onto the Texas coast. Makes me wonder if spills anywhere near the Panhandle might drift westward. Perhaps bsmart, one of our resident weather enthusiasts, could weigh in on that.

I did not know about the tar. So I went looking. Here is an interesting article:

Tar balls

One thing it talks about is how the Gulf currents conspire to wash the tar onto the Texas coast. Makes me wonder if spills anywhere near the Panhandle might drift westward. Perhaps bsmart, one of our resident weather enthusiasts, could weigh in on that.

Good article, TFT. And, yep, that about sums it up. I'll send my letter too as a concerned "tourist".

This is all about the 'big picture' and believing those who make promises they more than likely will not keep. Especially in a shakey economy. I did write and express this concern -- and why not take the stance that first Big Oil stop wasting their money on their lawyers and start using it to create the right technology that will be benefical to everyone - themselves, homeowners, tourism, and the environment. It's like when communities allow builders to surge in without providing for the traffic, community enhancement, or low-income housing for servicing the new growth. ~ Buenos Noches