Voters: Offshore Energy Is Good for Florida

July 9, 2018

By Dennis O. Freytes, an American Veteran, member of the Florida Veterans Hall of Fame and the Florida chair for Vets4Energy.

Voters, beware. Florida faces a tough election season this year, with a lengthy ballot and multiple key federal, state and local positions up for grabs. Floridians will be inundated with information over the next few months, and it’s up to us to discern fact from fiction. We should support candidates who have Florida’s best interest in mind and will deliver on policy promises once in office.
In my mind, one of the most important factors to consider when making decisions at the ballot box is energy policy. 

Despite the fear mongering and scare tactics used by radical environmentalists, oil and natural gas are essential to Floridians’ quality of life. We must support safe energy development for the good of all Americans, and this includes expansion of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) program to explore our resources offshore. 

Radical environmentalists continue to focus on the supposed “dangers” offshore energy exploration poses to our state’s tourism economy and temporarily scuttled plans for seismic tests along Florida’s Gulf and Atlantic coastlines. They don’t mention all the rules, regulations and safe modern engineering techniques in place to protect the environment.

Make no mistake about it, I care about the health of Florida’s coastal environment. However, unlike some on the other side of the political aisle, I also like to deal in truths. So, let’s start with the basics:

Seismic surveys, or the process by which....

Read entire article at Sunshine State News.