When I first arrived at Florida Southern College, I faced a huge learning curve.
Having spent much of my last fifteen years in the Midwest, I was far more familiar with the politics of corn and wheat insurance, land banking, water use, and cattle pens than with tourism and beaches and alligator walks.
I arrived in the middle of an alarmingly close election battle between Republican Rick Scott, also a relatively new arrival in Florida (heading a dubious company in Tennessee, if I remember correctly) and Adelaide “Alex” Sink, the former Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. CFO. I was also shockingly ignorant about most issues, both about the candidates and how everything worked politically.
That applied to Scott too.
The national position of the Republican Party at the time was very much one of energy self-sufficiency – “drill, baby, drill,” if you will. And Scott kind of took it left-handed without thinking about it too much (as he did for most of his career, when he held different types of positions).
Even as a total newcomer to the fractured idiosyncrasies of Florida politics, this struck me as odd, considering that the BP Horizon oil spill last April had just destroyed some of the most beautiful beaches in the world (I stand by this, and I’ve seen more than a few) an impassable, unswimmable mess, crushing tourism, ruining spring break, and endangering thousands of seabirds, kelp beds, and millions of marine animals.
Some impacts were immediate, others persisted at least until 2013, when young dolphins continued to die and oil and oil dispersants could still be found in the sand as far away as Tampa Bay.
And the tourists stayed home. Or worse, went to the Bahamas. Or somewhere else where they don’t have to give up sunbathing because they scrape the oil off the seagulls with ‘Dawn’.
Like me, Scott had arrived relatively recently. Unlike me, he didn’t see how the “drill” message would resonate with Florida voters—anyone, regardless of party. He made a rather abrupt change of position, barely righting the boat in time and achieving a one-point victory. He never mentioned the “Florida alternative” to coastal drilling again until it surfaced briefly during Donald Trump’s first term.
R. Bruce Anderson
When that happened, he (much to his credit) begged the president to spare Florida from the drilling attack promoted by the White House. Ultimately, Trump acquiesced, but coolly, and no oily machinery emerged on Florida’s golden shores.
In the dying light of the Biden administration, the president has made a last-ditch effort to make coastal protection permanent. Biden’s drilling ban — last week’s executive order — stretched from Oregon to Alaska, and fortunately to Florida. But the drill drums are beating again.
Trump has said loudly and publicly (is there any other way with this guy) that he will “unban” all this eco-nonsense once he gets into power – presumably including Florida’s fragile coastline. I’m not sure about the problems in Oregon, but I have a sneaking suspicion what the response might be here.
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And this time the threat could be real. In a nice article last week by Ana Goñi-Lessan of the USA TODAY Network-Florida, she reminded us all that a test well that was to be drilled by Clearwater Land & Minerals along the Apalachicola River somehow passed by and was approved by the Florida Department of State. of Environmental Protection last year.
Can it be stopped? The problem is that no matter what your stake in Florida is – as a cash cow for development, in tourism or in the simple pleasure of enjoying our incredible natural wonders – you Doing have a stake.
Rick Scott is still a senator, Governor DeSantis has an environmental side and both are close to the president. We have to hope against hope that these people will listen to the rest of Floridians and beg Trump to keep the ban in place, at least here.
R. Bruce Anderson is the Dr. Sarah D. and L. Kirk McKay, Jr. Endowed Chair in American History, Government, and Civics and Miller Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Florida Southern College. He is also a columnist for The Ledger and a political consultant and on-air commentator for WLKF Radio in Lakeland.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Drill, baby, drill: Trump flirts with another hard lesson | Anderson
