Once Election Day passes, expect to see talks about oil and gas drilling off of Florida’s coast revived, Politico reports.
Four people familiar with a plan to allow oil and gas drilling off Florida’s coast say the controversial topic will be brought up after November’s election.
“Whatever is decided is expected to come out within two to three weeks of the election,” one source, who has had recent discussions with Interior officials about the issue, told Politico.
Energy companies have been looking to drill in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. There are barrels of oil that have been off-limits since the federal government withdrew leases it had sold in 1985, according to Politico.
But the topic of drilling is controversial in Florida, with many opposed to it.
Trump has eased regulations on offshore drilling put in place by the Obama administration. The Interior has been working on a new drilling plan that would give oil companies more access to coastlines across the country, including in Florida and California.
The source said the eastern Gulf is the “golden trophy” for the oil companies because it could produce oil within 10 years using existing infrastructure from the western portion of the Gulf.
Another source said the plan will come out post-election, but before Trump leaves office.
In addition to avoiding a controversial topic before the election, the source indicated that Interior Secretary David Bernhardt is looking to make sure the plan would hold up in court if it was challenged.
“It’s a given that new acreage will become available when the politics of reelection are behind [Trump],” said one person in the industry, who called the eastern Gulf of Mexico as “the prize acreage.”
The proposed drilling plan has been kept under wraps since Bernhardt said the Interior was “indefinitely” delaying releasing the plan in April 2019. The announcement came after a court ruling upheld an Obama-administration ban on drilling in certain Arctic coastal areas.
Whenever the plan is released, it is expected to be met by criticism by Florida lawmakers, sources told Politico.
Earlier this year, Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio introduced the Florida Shores Protection and Fairness Act to extend the eastern Gulf’s existing drilling moratorium by 10 years. The bill has not yet been taken up for a vote.
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