Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is meeting with Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott Tuesday night in Tallahassee to discuss the Trump administration’s plan to allow oil and natural gas drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
Both Scott and Zinke’s office confirmed the meeting to the Washington Examiner, which is being held at 5:45 p.m.
Zinke had tweeted earlier Tuesday that he was en route to meet with Scott.
Scott, an ally of President Trump, had asked to meet with Zinke to discuss his opposition to offshore drilling in federal waters off Florida’s coast.
Scott and Florida lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, are pressing the Trump administration to not permit drilling in the eastern Gulf. They worry potential spills could harm their state’s huge tourism industry,
The government has a moratorium on offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf until June 30, 2022, imposed partly because the Pentagon worries oil development would interfere with military testing and training in the area.
President George W. Bush signed into law the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006 that bans oil and gas leasing within 125 miles of the Florida coast and other areas of the eastern Gulf until 2022.
But the Trump administration announced last week it plans to open almost all federal waters to oil and gas drilling, including in the eastern Gulf. The energy industry is excited about drilling opportunities in the eastern Gulf, industry sources say, more so than any other area proposed.
Under the proposal, leasing in the eastern Gulf would not begin until early 2023, the Interior Department says.
Oil and gas production in the Gulf, which accounts for almost all current U.S. offshore production, is expected to hit a record high in 2018, after suffering three years of losses. Opening areas closer to the coast of Florida would offer companies strong prospects for oil and gas and easy connections to existing infrastructure.
Under the Interior Department’s draft proposal for offshore drilling, spanning 2019 to 2024, more than 90 percent of the total acres on the Outer Continental Shelf would be made available for leasing. It proposes 47 potential offshore lease sales, the most ever over a five-year period, including 19 sales off the Alaska coast, 12 in the Gulf of Mexico, nine in the Atlantic Ocean and seven in the Pacific.
Zinke has emphasized the draft leasing plan is not final and subject to change, and said he is willing to negotiate with Scott and other Florida representatives.
“This is the beginning,” Zinke said last week, after announcing the draft plan. “At the end of the day, we will listen to the voices of communities and all stakeholders. I look forward to dialogue with Gov. Scott. We are sensitive to the needs of Florida and that coastline, which is heavily driven by tourism. Certainty Florida is going to have a say.”
As Zinke meets with Scott, Florida lawmakers in Congress are pressing to extend the moratorium on leasing in the eastern Gulf, to possibly permanently ban drilling there.
Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz said he and Republican Rep. Francis Rooney have “received assurances” from House leadership that it will include a permanent ban of offshore drilling off Florida’s coast in an upcoming must-pass spending bill, his office told the Washington Examiner.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., agreed to work with Gaetz and other Florida lawmakers to extend the moratorium.
“Reps. Rooney and Gaetz requested that we help identify a future vehicle to extend the eastern Gulf of Mexico moratorium and the speaker agreed to work with them,” Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong told the Washington Examiner.
A spokesman for House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop, whose panel has jurisdiction over the Interior Department, said he is negotiating with leadership and Florida lawmakers on the issue.
“Chairman Bishop is involved in ongoing conversations with leadership and the Florida delegation to build consensus on a responsible path forward,” Katie Schoettler, a committee spokeswoman, told the Washington Examiner.
