While President Trump is looking to make the U.S. oil-independent, some South Florida lawmakers are telling him to look elsewhere when it comes to new off-shore drilling.
The Sunshine State's Senior Senator Bill Nelson and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz are filing bills in their respective chambers aimed at protecting the waters off both coasts of Florida from new leases for oil and gas drilling.
"This is paradise, we don't want to mess it up, said Senator Nelson at Nova Southeastern University's Guy Harvey Oceanographic Institute in Dania Beach. "We want to keeo Florida as this place that is so beautiful so that our families and our guests can continue to enjoy (it)."
Nelson helped pass the original legislation that instituted a moratorium on drilling within 125 miles of Florida's Gulf coast but that provision expires in June of 2022. The new bill extends the prohibition for another five years plus it directs the U.S. Coast Guard to take measures that lower the risk of spills from existing rigs in the Gulf and makes all owners of oil coming from under the sea responsible for cleanup if a mishap should occur.
"We are drawing a deeper, bipartisan line in the sand," said Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz, who has Florida's 16th District Republican Vern Buchanan as a co-sponsor of her bill, with other GOP members of the Florida Delegation also expressing support. "It's not just our treasured environmental resources at stake but billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs in our vital tourism and fishing industries that hang in the balance and we refuse to risk any of that."
No drilling is permitted off the Atlantic coast of Florida but Senator Nelson and Congressman Ted Deutch expressed concerns that the actions and motivations of President Trump may soon lead them to file legislation to specifically protect the oceanic waters from new drilling permits as well.
To find out more about the bill and how close oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010 almost impacted South Florida, click the video below: