TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

On Drilling, Maybe It's Time To Take Another Look At The Horizon

ADVERTISEMENT

By TOM JACKSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 27, 2008

PENSACOLA BEACH - The view from the balcony of Room 317 stretches in a spectacular and unencumbered semicircle toward forever. This, as any first-year naval cadet (or visitor to www.boatsafe.com) can tell you, amounts to a glorious optical illusion.

When it comes to appreciating any nautical horizon, forever is closer than it seems - a fraction less than seven miles from my third-floor vantage point, even on tiptoes.

Nonetheless, however distant, the fine line where the Gulf of Mexico meets God's boundless sky is the sort of natural geometric fusion that tempts explorers away from the safety of shore, prompts poets to wax rhapsodic, and inspires the temporarily idle journalist to implore the poolside bartender for another banana jammer, the better to ponder the implications of that unbroken parabola.

This, inarguably, is a sight worth preserving at virtually any cost. It's the money shot for every chamber of commerce with a foot along Florida's coast. It's the reason even Floridians happy to live nearer the state's central ridge came south. It's probably why the Almighty coaxed our peninsula from an Upper Paleolithic soup in the first place.

No messing with the horizon. Not if pump prices top $20 a gallon. Not if veins of platinum-coated gold are discovered. Only if cures for cancer, Alzheimer's, AIDS and procrastination are found lurking in the muck six miles out do we tamper with the horizon, and then only after dark on moonless nights.

Pure As Powdered Sugar
Only here's the thing. Even the most aggressive proponents of prospecting for oil and natural gas in the eastern Gulf of Mexico are not advocating setting platforms any closer than 50 miles from Florida's coast. That's seven times the seven miles the all-important, bill-paying tourist can see from his third-floor balcony.

It's also about the distance separating Pensacola Beach from the nearest operating oil-and-gas platforms in the Gulf, platforms that were there for the onslaughts of assorted monster storms during the historic 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, when Pensacola Beach didn't record so much as a random tar ball spoiling its famed powdered sugar sands.

Again last week, Gulf states went on alert as Dolly muscled up before plowing into south Texas. Along Pensacola Beach, the surf that recently had been as quiet as a preschool at nap time was sent roiling, stirring up 5-foot waves that crashed in lovely explosions of froth along the shore.

And yet, the only real concern for beachgoers and resort owners alike was the sudden arrival of tennis-ball sized jellyfish trailing spaghetti tangles of stinging tentacles. Even the hardiest local surfers wouldn't challenge the onslaught. But there wasn't a hint of worry about petroleum spills.

What Cost Fear?

But here we are, riding technological advancements in prospecting, drilling and recovery that eliminate all but the slightest environmental concerns, having the same debate as if it were 1975.

Old attitudes are much of why Pasco County commissioners leapt to oppose offshore drilling when the topic arose awhile back and gasoline was about a dollar cheaper.

Two of the three who voted against drilling - a nonbinding statement that stands to inform decision-makers where Pasco stands - face voters in August.

The question Ann Hildebrand and Ted Schrader have to ask themselves is whether they want to endure that challenge still endorsing onerous pump prices for, really, no particularly good reason.

Tom Jackson can be reached at (813) 948-4219.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT