Subscribe for our daily coverage of local, state, and national news. 
Facebook
Twitter 
Google Buzz
Digg
Stumble Upon
RSS Feed
Print This PagePENSACOLA — Standing on a weathered deck overlooking Pensacola Bay, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney looked out on the placid water — marred just 18 months ago with patches of floating oil — and called for faster approval of drilling leases.
“I will actually get licenses to the people who want to drill for oil and for gas and get coal,” Romney declared, drawing cheers from the 200 people gathered for a veterans’ rally.
Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns at the Fish House in Pensacola.
Within earshot of the cheering crowd stood a marina, where John Struchen’s sailing instruction business almost collapsed in summer 2010 as waves of oil from the BP disaster that devastated Pensacola’s tourism economy scared 75 percent of his customers away.
Struchen found it odd that one of the nation’s worst environmental disasters did not merit a mention when a candidate talks energy policy in an area scarred from mismanaged drilling.
“There were so many businesses that just didn’t make it and their lives were changed dramatically,” Struchen said, arguing any debate on drilling should be balanced against the potential for another disaster.
But as the Republican presidential primary reaches the final stretch in Florida, comments on energy issues have centered around accusing President Barack Obama of obstructing oil and natural gas extraction while the candidates call for more drilling.
READ MORE
The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that sent 206 million gallons of crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, slicked 1,000 miles of coastline and shut down a third of Gulf of Mexico’s fishing grounds has not factored into the discussion.
Questions about drilling off the coast of Florida — currently banned and still a hot button issue in this state — have also been absent except for a brief mention during last Monday’s debate.
Republican presidential candidate former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum participates in the Republican presidential candidates debate at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.
When a debate moderator asked if drilling was worth the 5,000 expected jobs considering tourism generates 1 million jobs in Florida, Rick Santorum — the only candidate to answer the question — said more drilling would help Florida’s economy.
“Energy is absolutely key to keeping all of our country healthy, specifically Florida, which is a destination,” Santorum said. “This is a place that relies on people being able to travel and afford to travel to come down here.”
Florida’s western-most city, Pensacola was hit harder than any other community in the state by the well blowout, which originated off the coast of Louisiana and spread east to the Panhandle’s white sand beaches.
Waves of dark black crude washed ashore on Pensacola Beach in June 2010.
READ MORE
Struchen’s business declined by $200,000, but the loss went far beyond money.
“It was like a funeral here, there was definitely a sense of paradise lost,” he said.
The region’s tourism economy rebounded dramatically in 2011 and there are few visual reminders of the oil beyond the occasional tar ball, leaving many business owners and local residents satisfied that the disaster is behind them.
Attitudes about oil drilling in this staunchly conservative region have changed little overall.
Kirk Newkirk owns a parasailing business on Pensacola Beach that saw revenues drop by $500,000 during the oil spill but he noted BP covered all of his loses and business is booming again.
Pensacola residents want to move on, Newkirk said, and most still support drilling in the Gulf.
“It was rough, we all had tears in our eyes, but we’re so dependent on oil that we can’t let this one accident hold us back from developing our own energy in this country,” he said.
The candidates are in tune with such sentiments, strongly pushing for more oil and natural gas extraction in a manner reminiscent of the strident “Drill, baby, drill!” mantra of the 2008 presidential campaign.
READ MORE
Struchen, the sailing business owner, recognizes they are playing to their audiences, but he wonders what future generations will think.
“By and large we have very short-term memories,” he said. “We should learn more than we do.”
<i>Staff writer Kate Spinner contributed to this report.</i>
“Struchen found it odd that one of the nation’s worst environmental disasters did not merit a mention when a candidate talks energy policy in an area scarred from mismanaged drilling.”
Not odd at all. Appeasing the oil industry is more important than protecting the “environment”. Oil companies provide us with jobs, what does the “environment” provide us with, nothing.