Drilling foes address House

Mary and Lee Wilkerson have won preservation awards and accolades from travel Web sites for their painstaking restorations of older beach homes in the Tampa Bay area.

But they're not fooling themselves, said Mary Wilkerson, of Indian Rocks Beach. "We have never lost sight of the true reason our guests travel around the world to stay with us. And that's the fact that they sit on one of the finest white sandy beaches in the world."

That, she said, is why she trekked to Tallahassee to urge lawmakers Wednesday to not allow offshore oil drilling in Florida's Gulf waters.

"We are blessed in Florida with a spectacular national treasure," she said. "The fact that you are even considering putting these national treasures in harm's way is completely unthinkable to me."

The hotelier was among a handful of Bay area residents who spoke against drilling during the House Select Policy Council on Strategic and Economic Planning's five-hour workshop on the issue. Chairing the panel was House Speaker-designate Dean Cannon, who has already proposed lifting Florida's long-standing ban on offshore drilling in state waters, as close as three miles to shore.

Pushed by a group of oil and gas producers, Cannon's plan passed the House during the spring but stalled in the Senate. Cannon, who takes control of the House in 2011, plans to introduce a revised version of his legislation. Future Senate President Mike Haridopolos has pledged to make a similar proposal

Despite all that, Cannon said Wednesday that drilling is not a foregone conclusion.

"Today's focus was on the threshold question of whether it makes sense to consider lifting the ban," he said. "I happen to think the answer is yes, but there are those with other viewpoints, and I wanted to make sure that I had the opportunity to hear from them."

Drilling proponents claim it could create thousands of jobs and yield up to $2.25 billion a year for the state through royalties and drilling leases. Environmentalists challenge that, and both sides agree that potential revenues remain speculative.

Other speakers such as Jose Gonzalez, lobbyist for Associated Industries of Florida, disputed the contention that drilling destroys beaches, viewscapes and coastal tourism. To make his point, he displayed a photo of happy tourists frolicking on the beach in Santa Barbara, Calif., with oil rigs faintly visible in the background.

Polling shows public support for drilling off Florida's coast steadily increasing, Gonzalez said. Support was at its highest last summer, he said, when gas prices were hitting $4 per gallon.

Drilling in Florida waters won't lower gas prices, he conceded. "That's probably true. But for us, it's never been about gas prices; ... this is about jobs, and this is about access to our own natural resources."