Former Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said you can bring your own opinions to debate, but you cannot bring your own facts. The Orlando Sentinel editorial “Wondrous claims,” published Nov. 1 in the Bradenton Herald, relies on unsubstantiated and misleading hearsay from Secretary Sole and failed to check the facts.
I have estimated that there are 3 billion barrels of oil equivalents (mostly natural gas and gas liquids) in Florida’s coastal waters based on studies by the U.S. Minerals and Management Service. That is the best estimate available. The resource would be produced over a 20-year period at an average rate of 150 million barrels per year. At an average oil price of $75 and a royalty rate of 20 percent produces $2.2 billion in revenue per year.
The recent production history in Alabama provides the best data on what to expect in Florida’s coastal waters. Alabama produced 154 billion cubic feet of natural gas from 47 installations in 2005 (the latest reporting year). This is the equivalent of 27 million barrels of oil. The Alabama coast is only 8 percent as long as Florida’s west coast. At the Alabama rate, Florida’s production would be over 300 million barrel equivalents per year, double the Minerals and Management Service projection.
Finally, as for safety, there has not been a well blowout in U.S. waters since the Santa Barbara blowout in 1969. Forty years of safety with more than 40,000 wells drilled.
These are the facts. This is an important debate and we all have an obligation to focus on the facts no matter what our opinions may be.
Henry H. Fishkind, Ph.D., President, Fishkind & Associates, Inc. Orlando
Manatee County should vote to back Gulf oil drilling
Regarding the Manatee County Commission’s approval of a resolution against Gulf, they should revisit its attempt to influence our state from accepting its responsibility as one of these United States. The intent was and is wrong.
We owe it to our country to develop our resources. Oil, if we have it, was given to us by God and it is not for us to deny its use to our nation. At the present time our country is almost entirely dependent on undependable foreign sources of petroleum for our military and our industry. (We should have learned something in 1973.)
We can’t forever look askance at our responsibility and say “Let George do it.” Florida has done this for too long and should desist from doing it further. We owe it to the citizens of our state. They need industries that provide livelihoods that are not dependent on tourism and its resulting demand for services. Our citizens need access to well-paying jobs. Developing our resources would be the beginning of a vibrant economy. Extraction taxes alone would provide the tax base necessary to give this state finances to progress whether it be in education or the industries that we do not now encourage.
Does the commission need a good example of what an enlightened approach to our resources could do for our state and its people? It need only to look at Texas.
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