[FONT="]FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: David Pleat
Tel: 850-650-0599
E-mail: david@electdavidpleat.com[/FONT][FONT="][/FONT]
[FONT="][/FONT] It has now been over one month since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig catastrophe began. We have been left with profound uncertainty as to the future of our coastal life, the health of the Gulf of Mexico and the struggle to maintain our way of life and economy. Times like these allow our leaders to step up and seize the moment and lead us through the process of solving the problem and using the moment in time to reach to bold new and better places for our country. Regrettably, there has been very little such leadership as this event has unfolded.
I am left to ponder the fact that under Florida Statute ? 403.161, anybody who would deposit their automobile?s motor oil in the Gulf of Mexico would be subject to penalties as serious as a third-degree felony and fines of more than $50,000 and the possibility of imprisonment for five years, or both.
Here we have a foreign corporation who has already poisoned 20 % of the Gulf of Mexico, and one is left to wonder whether those who allowed the unconscionable lease rights at this depth without having adequate safeguards in place, and whether those representatives of the company who gambled with our future, our economy and our natural resource, will be held criminally responsible for their dereliction of duty and malfeasance.
We have also been left to witness the failure of our federal government to lead. At a national level, we should galvanize the greatest minds from the best universities and have the best engineers and technical people in the world gathered to assist BP in problem solving to fix this leaking well. We should have reached out immediately to any country and any resource to assist in the containment and fix of the ongoing leak. Instead, we left BP to its own devices, the same company who so carelessly gambled away the Gulf of Mexico. The arsonist put in charge of extinguishing the fire.
As a community, we should be demanding to understand why our state representatives and senators were so willing to gamble off our state waters to the same industry that so cavalierly has now poisoned the Gulf of Mexico. We should demand to know why our local representatives do not support a constitutional amendment to ban oil drilling in state waters. We should be demanding that our elected officials participate in a special session to ensure a constitutional amendment is placed on the ballot banning near shore oil drilling and, perhaps even more importantly, that we establish Florida as a leader in the nation in developing an aggressive, immediate and comprehensive new energy policy that requires us to move into a clean, alternative and renewable resource age. Not only will this set an example for the country, it will allow us to compete in the ever-expanding green marketplace for the jobs and the economy that are part of the new energy revolution.
BP does not have the right to gamble away our Gulf of Mexico in order to gain profit. Like Wall Street, we assume that BP and the petroleum industry care enough to monitor themselves. They do not. We need effective governmental regulation to maintain necessary checks and balances against corporate greed and disregard for our Mother Earth.
Two years ago, China was not even in the green energy game. Today, China produces more wind turbines and solar panels than any other country in the world. Forty years ago, Brazil set out to eliminate its dependence on foreign oil for transportation needs and today is self-sufficient for transportation fuel due to its sugar cane ethanol program. We do not need to wait for the federal government. We should rely on ourselves within the state of Florida to be the leader and role model for the nation on a comprehensive energy policy that aggressively moves us into the clean, green future.
We are tailor-made for solar energy in this state. We are able to harness 85% of the available solar energy because of the number of days we have with partial or full sunshine. We are truly the Sunshine State when it comes to the new energy age. We should encourage the development of a nuclear energy program that will bring us online with an energy source that does not create carbon emissions.
The time to act is not in five years or ten years. The time to act is now. Demand that your local elected officials state their position on a constitutional amendment banning oil drilling. Demand that your local officials tell you what they will do to ensure that Florida aggressively moves forward toward a comprehensive energy plan that includes clean, renewable and alternate energy sources. We owe it to ourselves, our children and our grandchildren. There is no time to waste.
The Deepwater Horizon disaster is a wake up call of unimaginable consequence. If Deepwater Horizon does not prompt us to act, I cannot imagine what it would take in order to move us forward.
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Tel: 850-650-0599
E-mail: david@electdavidpleat.com[/FONT][FONT="][/FONT]
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[FONT="]THE ARSONIST PUTS OUT THE [/FONT][FONT="]FIRE[/FONT][FONT="][/FONT]
[FONT="]Op/Ed from David Pleat, candidate for House District 7 seat[/FONT]
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I am left to ponder the fact that under Florida Statute ? 403.161, anybody who would deposit their automobile?s motor oil in the Gulf of Mexico would be subject to penalties as serious as a third-degree felony and fines of more than $50,000 and the possibility of imprisonment for five years, or both.
Here we have a foreign corporation who has already poisoned 20 % of the Gulf of Mexico, and one is left to wonder whether those who allowed the unconscionable lease rights at this depth without having adequate safeguards in place, and whether those representatives of the company who gambled with our future, our economy and our natural resource, will be held criminally responsible for their dereliction of duty and malfeasance.
We have also been left to witness the failure of our federal government to lead. At a national level, we should galvanize the greatest minds from the best universities and have the best engineers and technical people in the world gathered to assist BP in problem solving to fix this leaking well. We should have reached out immediately to any country and any resource to assist in the containment and fix of the ongoing leak. Instead, we left BP to its own devices, the same company who so carelessly gambled away the Gulf of Mexico. The arsonist put in charge of extinguishing the fire.
As a community, we should be demanding to understand why our state representatives and senators were so willing to gamble off our state waters to the same industry that so cavalierly has now poisoned the Gulf of Mexico. We should demand to know why our local representatives do not support a constitutional amendment to ban oil drilling in state waters. We should be demanding that our elected officials participate in a special session to ensure a constitutional amendment is placed on the ballot banning near shore oil drilling and, perhaps even more importantly, that we establish Florida as a leader in the nation in developing an aggressive, immediate and comprehensive new energy policy that requires us to move into a clean, alternative and renewable resource age. Not only will this set an example for the country, it will allow us to compete in the ever-expanding green marketplace for the jobs and the economy that are part of the new energy revolution.
BP does not have the right to gamble away our Gulf of Mexico in order to gain profit. Like Wall Street, we assume that BP and the petroleum industry care enough to monitor themselves. They do not. We need effective governmental regulation to maintain necessary checks and balances against corporate greed and disregard for our Mother Earth.
Two years ago, China was not even in the green energy game. Today, China produces more wind turbines and solar panels than any other country in the world. Forty years ago, Brazil set out to eliminate its dependence on foreign oil for transportation needs and today is self-sufficient for transportation fuel due to its sugar cane ethanol program. We do not need to wait for the federal government. We should rely on ourselves within the state of Florida to be the leader and role model for the nation on a comprehensive energy policy that aggressively moves us into the clean, green future.
We are tailor-made for solar energy in this state. We are able to harness 85% of the available solar energy because of the number of days we have with partial or full sunshine. We are truly the Sunshine State when it comes to the new energy age. We should encourage the development of a nuclear energy program that will bring us online with an energy source that does not create carbon emissions.
The time to act is not in five years or ten years. The time to act is now. Demand that your local elected officials state their position on a constitutional amendment banning oil drilling. Demand that your local officials tell you what they will do to ensure that Florida aggressively moves forward toward a comprehensive energy plan that includes clean, renewable and alternate energy sources. We owe it to ourselves, our children and our grandchildren. There is no time to waste.
The Deepwater Horizon disaster is a wake up call of unimaginable consequence. If Deepwater Horizon does not prompt us to act, I cannot imagine what it would take in order to move us forward.
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