Republican House Speaker Marco Rubio said in an
interview with the Herald that he supports oil drilling off Florida's
coast "if it can be done in a manner that's safe for our environment.''
But he challenged Gov. Charlie Crist and John McCain's implication that
drilling could lower gas prices anytime soon.
"For anyone to represent that someone drilling off the coast in
Florida is going to lower gas prices here or anywhere in this country
is disingenuous and a flawed argument,'' he said. "Oil drilling
could take 10 years before any oil is pulled out of the ground, and
there are a large number of leases held by oil companies that are not
being exploited now. We can't say we need more until we've exploited
those.''
As the Speaker notes, oil companies already own leases to more than 60 million acres of federal land but have failed to utilize those resources.
Senator McCain might consider providing some of that (seldom used) "straight talk" he's so famous for and give Americans the full story on offshore and ANWR oil drilling and the near and long term benefits and results of each.
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