Meeting Florida's Energy Needs!

Energy is critical to Florida's economic future. High energy prices have had a significant negative impact on Florida's economy, higher transportation costs fuel prices have dampened Floridians tourism industry and businesses, such as agriculture and agricultural products, are being negatively impacted because of higher natural gas prices. Congress and the states are debating on plans to reduce the cost of energy and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The debate centers around expanding domestic exploration for oil and natural gas and the use of alternative, renewable energy sources such as ethanol, hydrogen, wind and solar.

Fossil fuels are a finite product and we should encourage research and development of renewable sources of energy as part of a long term solution to our energy needs. But the reality is the opportunity for any of these alternative energy sources to solve our energy problems for anytime in the next 10 to 20 years is minimal.

Floridians should support a comprehensive energy policy that ensures affordable, reliable energy supplies and promotes energy independence, economic prosperity and national security. Increased domestic production is critical to our national security, particularly in light of the increasing turmoil and uncertainty in oil-producing parts of the world and to better bridge the gap to alternative power, it is imperative that increased domestic oil & gas production be the immediate goal until new sources can provide an economically viable addition to our country’s needs.

Currently many areas of the Gulf of Mexico are off-limits to oil and natural gas exploration, yet geologists estimate there are large reservoirs of oil and natural gas yet untapped, in fact right now it is projected that over 232 trillion cubic feet of natural gas is in the Gulf of Mexico. With new technologies oil and gas can be produced in a safe and environmentally sound fashion and offshore operations can co-exist in harmony with Florida's other vital economic interests.