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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Lowering the Boom: Off-Shore Drilling Backlash Swirling in FL?

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Monday, July 7, 2008   

Tallahassee, FL – As Florida drivers paid record-high prices for gasoline over the weekend, polls showed that the public -– hoping for fuel cost relief -- was warming to the idea of lifting the off-shore drilling ban.

However, Richard Charter, an energy expert with Defenders of Wildlife in Florida, says that excitement about a break at the pump may fade this week after numbers from the federal government and oil companies themselves show the savings would only be a couple of pennies a gallon -- and wouldn't happen for 10 years.

He says now the pitch from the big oil companies is that off-shore drilling will bring "psychological benefits:" People will "feel better" if the sea bottom under coastal waters is drilled.

"The first time something goes wrong and closes down the coastal-dependent tourism industry for a summer -- or longer -- we won't feel better at all."

One company has said such accidents are rare; a spokesman for another company has said they could get off-shore oil flowing within a year if the ban is lifted. Gov. Charlie Crist also supports lifting the ban.

Charter takes issue with these statements, saying Big Oil has been playing into the panic at the pump by trying to make the connection that off-shore drilling would mean lower prices. He says the public is too smart to believe that, and the truth is fueling a backlash against the push to drill.

"Many of the allegations being made by the oil industry are actually just outright lies, and those are now coming to the surface."






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