Despite polls showing that most Florida residents want a constitutional ban on oil drilling in state waters, the Republican-led Legislature met in special session for less than an hour Tuesday and killed all attempts to put the issue on the ballot in November.
Gov. Charlie Crist called lawmakers back to Tallahassee and gave them four days to consider a statewide vote on the constitutional prohibition because the deadline to place an amendment on the ballot is Aug. 3.
Florida law currently bans oil drilling in state waters, which extend 10 miles offshore into the Gulf of Mexico and three miles offshore into the Atlantic.
However, lawmakers can change the law and almost did so. In a recent regular session, the House passed a bill allowing drilling in state waters but it failed in the Senate. That was prior to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, called his chamber into session Tuesday and criticized Crist for not proposing language for the constitutional amendment. However, several resolutions on the drilling ban were filed by House members and all died in committee or were not heard.
Cretul said he conferred with Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-Palm Beach, and both men decided that they would call a special session most likely in September to consider other kinds of relief for residents and businesses suffering from the impact of the oil spill.
Before adjourning the brief House session Tuesday, Cretul formed six work groups to examine short-term assistance to affected communities, private-sector damage claims, recovery of damages and expenditures by state and local government, strengthening Florida’s civil and criminal penalties for environmental injuries, and disaster response and preparation for potential future events.
Crist, a former Republican now an independent candidate for a U.S. Senate seat this fall, said lawmakers “shirked their duty.”
A number of state officials have for weeks made suggestions about ways the Legislature could help those affected by the oil spill. For example, only lawmakers can order reductions in property values because of it.
The state’s elected chief financial officer, Alex Sink, a Democrat running for governor, said lawmakers “showed a stunning lack of leadership on an economic issue impacting hundreds of thousands of Floridians.”
A June 9 poll by Quinnipiac University found that Florida voters opposed increasing the amount of offshore oil drilling 51% to 42%. That was a 48-point swing from the 66% to 27% who supported drilling in an April 19 survey.
