Drilling hypocrisy in Tallahassee

House Speaker Larry Cretul and his colleagues in the House set new standards for hypocrisy when they promptly adjourned a special session that Gov. Charlie Crist called to put a constitutional ban on near-shore drilling.

Cretul said Crist's "surprise proclamation" allowed "too little time for reflection and review" of the proposal - which is nonsense.

The task was profoundly simple: Approve a referendum to prohibit drilling in state waters - three to 10 miles off the coast - and let voters decide.

Last year, Cretul and his fellow House leaders didn't worry about allowing time for reflection when they launched a surprise late-session plan to allow drilling off our beaches. The proposal was devised by the oil industry and railroaded through the House with virtually no public discussion. Fortunately for the people of Florida, the state Senate refused to go along.

And yet Cretul now has the gall to attack Crist because he wants to give citizens a voice on the critical decision.

Approval of such a referendum would have sent a signal to the rest of the world that Florida values its beaches, considered among the best in the world, and is determined to keep them clean. Such a message could have given a boost to the state's struggling tourism industry.

Drilling advocates have argued that the state and nation are ill-served by the ban and that most Florida residents want more drilling. Now they don't seem to care about public opinion.

Cretul and other House leaders who were so eager to risk Florida's coast last year now profess to want to protect jobs in the Panhandle beach communities hit hard by the Deepwater Horizon spill.

He says House leaders are developing an agenda for another special session - probably in September.

The state does need to take such steps, such as requiring faster responses to claims and offering tax breaks to affected businesses and citizens.

Though Crist had wanted this session to be devoted to the referendum, the Senate wanted to take up other related oil-spill matters. But it adjourned when Cretul slammed the door on any further discussion.

House members should have at least gone on record for or against the referendum, so voters could see who was opposed to having voters decide.

Tampa's Alex Sink, the state's chief financial officer and the leading Democratic candidate for governor, may have been making political points, but she also was on target Tuesday when she accused the Legislature of twiddling its thumbs since the spill instead of acting on its professed priority - job growth.

Much of the friction over the special session can be attributed to GOP leaders' anger at Crist for leaving the party.

That surely plays a role. But a bigger factor, we suspect, is the special-interest money at stake.

As long as drilling off Florida's beaches remains a possibility, then the oil industry will continue to pump dollars into the campaigns of its legislative champions.

A constitutional amendment, which would not have affected drilling in federal waters, could have put an end to all that.

Now, you can be certain, the industry and its legislative cronies will bide their time and again seek to exploit the coast. Voters should spend some time reflecting on Cretul's and the House's arrogant disregard of their beaches and their voice.