Federal official says Florida is still being considered for offshore drilling

SARASOTA, Fla. (WFLA) – A federal official announced Florida waters could still be open for drilling. This news completely contradicts an announcement made last week by Florida Governor Rick Scott and the US Secretary of the Interior.

When the Trump administration recently announced plans to open federal waters for drilling, Governor Rick Scott was angry. So last week, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke flew to Tallahassee to meet with Scott and suddenly declared at the Tallahassee airport that Florida was “off the table.”

But it turns out, that’s not the case.

On Friday, the acting director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Walter Cruickshank, testified at a congressional hearing and made a complete reversal.

“We have no formal decision on what’s in or out of the five year program,” said Cruickshank.

Cruickshank said Florida has not been removed from consideration.

“It is not a formal action, no….we will be including [Florida] in the analysis for the decisions which will come out later this year.”

Many are crying foul, including Democratic Senator Bill Nelson.

“This confirms what we all suspected; there is no deal to protect Florida from drilling. What we saw last week was just political theater, and the people of Florida should be outraged. Drilling off of Florida’s coast is a real threat to our state and we should all be working together to protect our coasts, not playing politics with an issue that’s so important to our future,” said Senator Nelson.

Lynn Nilssen with the Sierra Club feels the government should be more invested in renewable energy, not drilling.

“It actually highlights the inadequacies or the ineptness of this particular administration and how they go about making policy or it’s a very reactionary response and again, not listening to the people of the United States or even the people here in Florida,” said Nilssen.

A spokesperson for Secretary Zinke said today’s news does not amount to much.

“Cruikshank simply said BOEM will finish the legally-required analysis of the planning areas, as is always done for all planning areas,” said Department of the Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift.

On Friday, Governor Rick Scott defended Secretary Zinke’s promise.

“I’m going to continue to oppose drilling off the coast of Florida. Secretary Zinke is a man of his word. He’s a Navy Seal. He promised me that Florida would be off the table and I believe Florida is off the table,” said Governor Scott.