Legislation opens Gulf waters

Some Florida lawmakers said legislation opening 8.3 million acres in the central Gulf of Mexico to oil and natural gas drilling will bring important new protections to the state's Gulf beaches, creating a no-drill buffer from Pensacola to Key West ranging from 125 miles off the Panhandle to more than 200 miles off the Fort Myers coast - Dec. 10, Pensacola News Journal

House to vote on offshore drilling bill

Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives, who will yield to a Democratic majority in January, on Friday agreed to allow a vote on a limited offshore oil and natural gas drilling bill, which would open 8.3 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida - Dec. 1, Reuters

Spills or not, gulf drilling will be messy

The federal government says the odds are a minuscule 0.5% that an oil spill from expanded drilling in the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico would hit Florida beaches; environmentalists scoff at the math - Nov. 27, Sarasota Herald Tribune

Activists blast offshore drilling proposal

Environmentalists lambasted federal regulators this morning over an offshore drilling proposal for Florida coastal waters, but one of their most powerful supporters did not join them, Governor Elect Charlie Crist - Nov. 15, Florida Today