Tourism Industry Changes Tune To 'Drill, Baby, Drill'

It's almost as earth-shattering as if the Surgeon General had told us it is OK to smoke. It is also probably one of our politicians' and environmentalists' worst nightmares.
A powerful grouping of Florida's convention and visitors bureaus has picked up the "Drill, Baby, Drill" slogan so often bandied loudly about during the recent presidential campaign.
The tourism association has now advanced the idea that the exploration and production of petroleum products from offshore Florida is not such a bad idea, after all. These are the very same people who have been touting a clean environment as essential to our tourist-based economy.
Their chief goal, of course, is to help preserve and even advance tourism as Florida's leading business. Florida's 850 miles of beaches can coexist peacefully with offshore oil rigs, they're saying. Until now, the state's tourism authorities have been doggedly against offshore drilling. What has happened to change their minds?
They've recognized at last that Florida would be hard-put without its tourism. The business employs almost a million people. That accounts for a huge chunk of working Floridians. Whose bread line would they be standing in if vacationers could no longer afford to drive to Florida?
Not many months ago, we were flirting with the $4 gallon of gas and the suggestion of a federal gas tax holiday. Gas has since plunged to 1970s levels, but the boys and girls at our local tourism offices see it as a temporary dip. One severe cold snap up north, and it's all over.
Under Cuban sponsorship, the Red Chinese are already drilling, horizontally, into Florida's continental shelf. There's isn't much we can say or do about it; it's Cuba's shelf, too.
The tourism organizations are now urging us to go deep there before all the oil is gone. At our latest estimate, offshore Florida may hold only a half-year's supply of American demand for oil. That's according to what we thought we knew, based on35-year-old technology.
Science has made tremendous strides since then, of course. Let's make use of it. That's what convention and visitor officials are pleading. Forget all that speculation about oil spills fouling our prize-winning beaches with ugly and hard-to-disperse gobs of tar. The risk isn't there, but the reward is.
No one knows for sure how much oil and natural gas really lies unpumped offshore Florida. Certainly, much more than we thought back in the 1970s. Problem is, federal regulations have until now banned geologists with the latest seismic technology from even giving us updated estimates.
The turning point came about six months ago when long-time offshore drilling foe Gov. Charlie Crist did an abrupt about-face and gave his blessing to dust off the oil platforms. This must have smarted for our tourism people and other politicians who had been prioritizing protecting Florida's natural beauty.
The governor surely knew where he was coming from; he's supposed to be the state's leading tourist promoter. "We're suffering," he said.
Advocating offshore drilling when gas was still around $4 a gallon, Crist admitted prices would not automatically come down. He was right; the price of gas has nose-dived, instead, in tune with the shaky economy.
Our offshore drilling estimates are currently stuck at relatively ancient levels. While it might take as much as a decade to get us up to speed, I've also read knowledgeable guesswork that the job may take as little as five years to free ourselves from the shackles of foreign petroleum products and the whims of rogue states.
In contrast, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., a former astronaut, predicts relief won't come until 2030, at best. Either he doesn't know as much as a fifth-grader or he's been in outer space way too long.
Greenhouse spinoffs, wonder our "Nervous Nellies?" Let's face up to realities. Most of us would rather have jobs and millions of out-of-state motorists sunbathing on Florida beaches. Still, we have a lot of work left before we can convince other leading politicians to endorse offshore drilling.