AT BIOFUEL SUMMIT, BRONSON SAYS OIL DRILLING NEEDED

By KEITH LAING
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

ORLANDO, Fla., July 30, 2009……….Drilling for old-fashioned oil in near shore Florida waters should be part of the nation’s energy diet, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Bronson said Thursday at a conference about increasing the use of newer fuel types.

After speaking at the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ fourth annual “Farm to Fuel” summit in Orlando, Bronson told the News Service of Florida that the state and the nation need to be energy self-sufficient and there would not be enough biofuels to sustain the state fully. Bronson said biofuel, which most experts agree is the most available clean energy type in Florida, could probably only could cover about 30 percent of the need.

With that in mind, Bronson, a champion of biofuel, said that he was also in favor of underwater offshore drilling, which he said was safer than above-ground oil rigs.

“We need to be 100 percent energy sufficient in this country and the only way to do that is to do both,” Bronson said in an interview after his speech. “There is technology that says we can do it safely.”

The pitch at the “Farm to Fuel” summit this week is mostly that biofuel will wean the country’s dependence on foreign oil. But Bronson said drilling off the Gulf Coast, which surfaced during the most recent Florida legislative session and is also being debated in Congress, would help Florida do that. And including drilling in an “all of the above” energy policy would also help the state control gas prices, he added.

“Facts are facts,” Bronson said. “The high cost of fuel is what’s got agriculture and all types of industries in trouble now. Every single phase of agriculture is fuel-based, whether it’s planting the seed, picking the product or taking it to the marketplace. All of those costs have gone up tremendously. They’re almost three or four times as expensive as they were 10 years ago.”

Though a biofuel summit may seem like an odd backdrop for discussing looking for oil off the Florida coastline, Bronson said that his support for drilling was in completely in line with the reason his department starting hosting the conference four years ago: to secure the state’s energy future.

“At every single one of these, business deals have been cut,” he said. “It’s happening. Florida is going to be a leader in the nation (in renewable energy from farms) when it’s all said and done. It’s either do it now or pay a heck of a lot for it later.”

But a Democratic candidate to replace Bronson next year when he’s term-limited said Bronson’s position was a betrayal of those who are seeking more use of biofuels as an environmentally friendlier alternative to oil. Eric Draper, who is also deputy director of Audubon Florida, said safe drilling was an oxymoron.

“There’s no such thing as safe underwater oil drilling,” Draper told the News Service of Florida in a separate interview at the “Farm to Fuel” summit. “The so-called ’safe-technologies’ have not been tested in Florida waters and they certainly have not been tested in Florida hurricanes.”

Draper’s indignation at Bronson’s decision to come out in favor of drilling appeared to be partly fueled by his decision to use the “Farm to Fuel” summit to make it public.

“I think Charlie Bronson is betraying the people who came here this week and paid $350 (to register for the convention) to promote biofuel,” Draper said. “Biofuels compete for market share with cheap oil. As long as we keep dependent on cheap oil, we’re not going to develop the biofuel market.”

This spring, the environmental community appeared ready to accept concessions such as including nuclear technology the proposed renewable energy standard for power companies, which it had fought for months, in the hopes of getting a bill passed last session. But the drilling proposal, which emerged late in the legislative session, was a non-starter when the House proposed it. And it is still is despite Bronson’s new backing, Draper said.

“I’m stunned he would even consider it,” Draper said, adding that the environmental community had always thought it had an ally in Bronson. “How can be an advocate for renewable energy and at the same time be an advocate for fossil fuels? That’s a contradictory position.”

Bronson’s support for more oil drilling in addition to greater investment in biofuel technology found a more receptive audience in Gov. Charlie Crist, who is nationally regarded as one of most sensitive Republican leaders to climate and energy issues.

“My feeling has always been that if it is far enough, clean enough and safe enough, we have to be open-minded about it,” Crist told reporters after his own speech to the “Farm to Fuel” summit. “We’re so dependent on foreign oil that it is compromising our security. If we can do it safely where Florida can benefit, I think it’s something we need to look at.”

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7/30/09

VASILINDA ON DRILLING VOTE: ‘I CUT A DEAL’ FOR HOUSE ACTION ON RPS

By KEITH LAING
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, July 28, 2009………. Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda said Tuesday that her vote in favor of a controversial bill that could have allowed offshore oil drilling as close as three miles from Florida’s Gulf Coast was part of a deal that would have resulted in more renewable energy in the state.

Speaking during a roundtable discussion about clean tech businesses hosted by the Florida Renewable Energy Producers Association, Vasilinda, D-Tallahassee, said she voted for the bill last session because House Speaker Designate Dean Cannon and sponsor Charles Van Zant said they would have allowed her to attach amendments to it that would have result in $160 million in investment in renewable energy. If it had been approved, the governor and Cabinet would have been allowed to consider approving Gulf drilling fields.

The deal fell apart when the Senate showed little appetite for the late-emerging drilling plan, but Vasilinda said the vote was “courageous” and stood by it on Tuesday despite taking heat from former Leon County Democratic Party Chairman Rick Minor, who resigned his post to challenge her for the House District 9 seat partially because of the vote.

“I cut a deal,” she said. “The deal was …. if I vote for that, then I could get my renewables on. The bill looked like it was going, and it looked like it was going to be accepted in the Senate at that time and by the governor. The only opportunity for anybody to put renewables on this bill at the time was me, so I did that. We got $160 million for true renewables – no nuclear – on the bill and that was the only energy bill that was coming out of the House.”

An April Mason-Dixon Polling and Research survey showed why the drilling vote could prose problems for Vasilinda in the primary against Minor. Fifty-nine percent of the poll’s 625 respondents said they supported drilling off Florida’s coast, but among Democrats, the margin was just 46 percent to 35 percent.

Vasilinda told the group of renewable energy producers that the drilling vote was not easy, but she also said that she “proud” of it because getting investment in renewables was one of her chief campaign promises.

“I was really quite nervous about doing this; I was getting pressure from all kinds of folks.” she said during a wrap-up of the 2009 legislative session at the FREPA roundtable. “My eyes were bugging out of my head. But I went up to take my amendments off and…basically started to get sick to my stomach because I felt like I was lacking courage. I felt like if I removed the amendments that I would not be being true by what I went there for and what I represented myself for.”

Vasilinda added that she recognized the vote could be problematic for her politically in one of the few left-leaning outposts in the Panhandle, saying that “people are couching me as being pro-drilling,” but she quickly added that she was not.

Chief among those doing the couching is Minor, Vasilinda’s new opponent for the 2010 Democratic nomination. Launching his candidacy last month, Minor cited the drilling vote as a major reason Vasilinda deserved to be replaced after just one session in office.

“The fact that someone could support off-shore drilling as little as three miles off Florida’s beaches, I think is a travesty,” Minor said during a June 30 news conference, painting Vasilinda as unprincipled. “The voters in District 9 want a strong Democrat that knows where he or she stands on the core Democratic issues. We have had some really great representatives in that district…and people are used to and expect strong leadership in that seat and right now they aren’t getting that.”

Minor stuck to that position Tuesday, telling the News Service of Florida Tuesday that Vasilinda’s explanation of her drilling vote was not good enough to excuse it.

“The way I look at it is despite what the oil companies will tell you, there’s no way to have oil drilling as little as 3 miles off our shores be safe,” he said in a telephone interview. “Other members have said that one spill would decimate the industries along our coast. When you consider that — when you consider the $56 billion in tourism that we get every year because of our beaches, that’s too much to risk. Our beaches and tourism industry define who we are as Floridians.”

Natural Resources Defense Council consultant Susan Glickman, who lobbied for the renewable energy standard on behalf of the Climate Group, agreed with Minor that Vasilinda’s deal was a bad one for Florida.

“There was unanimous opposition from the conservation community,” Glickman told the News Service. “There was no way to strike a palatable deal to tie the renewable portfolio standard to the drilling bill. Investing in drilling is like buying an 8-track cassette when the whole world is buying iPods. There’s no trade-off. To drill is to move 180 degrees in the opposite direction.”

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7/28/09

AN OUTSIDER-INSIDER RACE WITH A TWIST TO REPLACE VICTOR CRIST

By KEITH LAING
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, July 21, 2009……In the race to replace term-limited Tampa Sen. Victor Crist next year, state Rep. Kevin Ambler thinks he is in a league of his own.

Going from being a county commissioner to the Legislature “is like a being a baseball player and thinking you’re going to switch sports and be first string on the football team,” Ambler, of Tampa, told the News Service of Florida in an interview. “I already know the game and I already know the players. I think Jim Norman would make a good House member and I would be privileged to be his mentor and help him get up to speed on the issues.”

Not surprisingly, his opponent for the Republican nomination and current Hillsborough County Commissioner Norman disagrees. And so does future Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne, who will assume the chamber’s gavel when Crist’s successor takes office.

“For 15 years as a county commissioner, and even more as a community leader, Jim Norman has earned the trust and respect of his neighbors,” Haridopolos said in a statement announcing his unusual endorsement in a contested primary. “His record of civic achievement is built on solid conservative values, and with the support of the people of Pasco and Hillsborough Counties, he will be a great senator.”

Norman was also endorsed by the Senate’s top budget man JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, and the chairman of the Senate’s select committee on the economy, Don Gaetz of Niceville. But that isn’t enough to stop Ambler from believing that the eight year edge in legislative service he will have on Norman when voters in Hillsborough and Pasco counties have to choose between them next year will come in handy.

“If I have been a good member (of the House) and if I’ve fulfilled my promises, I think having the amount of experience you acquire doing that is very important,” Ambler said. “If I am able to communicate to the voters effectively that real experience matters, I think it will be an advantage.”

But the outsider candidate with the insider support thinks endorsements like Haridopolos’ will make for an effective counter to that line of attack.

“When the leaders of the particular House endorse me to say they want me to work side-by-side with them, that says a lot,” Norman said in a separate interview with the News Service. “I’m a little guy and I’m humbled by their support. It’s pretty daunting to have the leadership reach down and support me.”

In a district Crist won 70 percent of the vote in 2006 despite the area having a slight Democratic voter registration advantage as of last year’s presidential election, the experience argument may worth winning. No Democrats have filed to run for the seat next year, and the party did not field a candidate against Crist in 2006.

Ambler may think the county commission is insufficient preparation for the Legislature’s upper chamber, but Norman attributes his work there with winning him support of the veteran senators.

“I’ve worked closely with the legislative delegation, which is why I believe they’ve given me such a strong endorsement,” Norman said. “I’m not an unknown. I’m somebody who has established that I’m a conservative. People know where I come down on the issues, whether they’re fiscal or social.”

Norman also thinks his local ties will give him an edge over Ambler in the primary next year. He pointed out that before he won his countywide District 5 commission seat in 2000 he represented the panel’s second district, which covers the northern, most populous part of the county.

“There’s big guys out there with a lot of lobbyist support, but this is Hillsborough County,” Norman said. “I have very strong support from the people who live here. That’s who elected me. I have been on the ballot 17 years. Those people think I have enough experience.”

But for all the talk of experience between the two candidates to replace Crist, who has been in the Legislature since 1992, neither man is familiar with running a race in two large, heavily populated counties at the same time. The difference explains why the race has already begun in earnest a full year before the primary, Ambler said.

“I’ve run a lot of tough races, but it’s three times the geographic area (of my House district), so it presents a challenge,” Ambler said. “When I ran my first House race, I didn’t announce until October of the year before (the election). Now I’ve filed 2 years early. You need a longer period of time to communicate with the voters in such a large area.”

A successful District 12 candidate would also need money, Ambler added, touting the $93,778 he raised between April and June to bring his total fundraising this year to $151,674. “The initial name of the game is getting out there and raising money in an expensive media district,” he said.

Norman, who raised $15,205 for the second fundraising quarter to bring his total to $268,881, said he would focus more on meeting voters face-to-face than hand-to-wallet – though he’s had success there too. His campaign has been one of the most successful at raising money among all Senate candidates.

“I have a different style of campaigning than most people who are in elected office,” Norman said. “Back when I first got elected, I only won by going door-to-door and asking people if there was something I could do for them.”

And despite his fundraising prowess, he said that’s what he plans to do this time around.

“I’m not going to win races by sitting in an office and running flyers and making TV ads,” he said. “My constituents will know me. Money is nice, but I’m more or less depending on sitting in people’s living rooms.

-END-
7/21/09

THREE LEON COUNTY DEMS VYING TO REPLACE TERM-LIMITED LAWSON

By KEITH LAING
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, July 9, 2009……….Filling the shoes of a 6-foot-8 man is no easy task, especially one who has been at the job for nearly 30 years. But that is task of three Leon County Democrats who call themselves friends but will be opponents in next year’s Senate District 6 primary.

With Senate Minority Leader Al Lawson preparing to leave the Legislature that he has been a member of since 1982, the race to replace him has drawn two former Tallahassee representatives who want to follow his path from the House to the Senate and an educator who wants to jump straight to the upper chamber.

Lawson, who was elected to represent one of the Panhandle’s few Democratic-leaning districts in the Senate in 2000 after 18 years in the House, will face term-limits next year and is running for the U.S. Congress. The institutional memory that will go with Lawson to Washington, D.C. should he be successful is why the race to succeed him is so important, former state Rep. Curtis Richardson told the News Service of Florida in an interview in which he sized up the field that has quickly become crowded.

“Sen. Lawson is leaving after 28 years, which will create a leadership void for our area,” said Richardson, who served in the House from 2000 to 2008. “That’s why I’m running, to make sure that we still have the same level of representation, especially because we have two sophomore legislators in the House and Rep. (Michelle) Rehwinkel Vasilinda has gotten a challenge so we may have another freshman.”

Richardson and the other two candidates to replace Lawson – former Rep. Loranne Ausley and Florida Association of District School Superintendents chief executive officer Bill Montford – have about a year to introduce themselves to the parts of the nine county district that are not within shouting distance of the Capitol.

That could be the key to determining which one of them will be sworn-in after next November’s elections, Richardson said, and it explains why they are all already on the campaign trail.

“Politics in this area is retail,” Richardson said. “People want to know you and feel like you’re a part of the community, not just showing up at the times when you’re looking for votes. They want to know you understand their values.”

Ausley agreed, adding that the state worker-packed district is an informed electorate, making it one that will not easily be satisfied with platitudes. That’s why she has been pressing the flesh too, she said.

“Folks in these counties know about government and they want to know their politicians,” she said.

Ausley, Richardson and Montford are all Tallahassee-based – and will have to get out into the other areas of the district too. Despite attending both Florida A&M and Florida State universities, Lawson grew up in rural Midway before making his life in Tallahassee, giving him a natural connection to the non-Tallahassee parts of the Senate district.

While the Republican Party of Florida has drawn attention for a perception that its leadership chooses candidates for some races, and tries to push other candidates out of the primary, Ausley said that isn’t happening on the Democrat side.

“The party’s not ever gotten involved (in primaries),” Ausley said. “It’s up to us to prove our case to the voters and go from there.”

The candidates all agreed that it will take money to reach those deciders, making fundraising another possible determinant in the three-way race Montford compared to “a tennis match among friends.”

“It’s a large district,” he said. “It’s going to take a good deal of money to cover it.”

And with the primary 13 months away, they will have to watch how they spend it, Montford said. That’s why he has not made any staffing moves yet, despite the fact that he raised $110,000 from the beginning of April to the end of June.

“Once you hire staff, you’ve got to start paying them,” Montford said. “I’m just doing fundraising and renewing old acquaintances.”

On both counts, Montford said his background in education may be helpful. It’s produced a lot of grateful friends who might see fit to donate and volunteer for his campaign, he said.

“I’ve been in the school system so long, I hope my reputation as an educator among my former students and parents is solid and I’m looking forward to getting reacquainted with them,” he said.

Ausley, who has already launched a campaign Website, said she thought it would take between $250,000 and $500,000 to win the race. She has raised $170,000 in the first two quarters of 2009, she said. The deadline for state candidates to report fundraising for the second quarter is Friday.

“We’re getting ready to find out where everybody is,” Ausley said. “It’s really disgusting if you think about it, but if you look at back 2000, $750,000 was spent on the airwaves back and forth among interest groups. I hope it doesn’t get to that, but money is important.”

Richardson, who has not yet released his fundraising figures, said he took a different lesson from the campaign that produced Sen. Lawson, saying he would spend around the same amount that Lawson did in his race.

“Sen. Lawson won the district with about $200,000,” Richardson said. “That was some time ago, but I think you can do it for about that. I don’t think money will be what determines who win this race. You have to be able to get your message out, but money doesn’t vote. People vote.”

Richardson said the invisible money primary that is part of modern politics was never one that he was aiming to win.

“Knowing that I wouldn’t raise the most money, I got started early touching the people so they could know me and not make a decision based on a 30 second television commercial, radio spot or direct mail piece,” Richardson said. “That’s always been my strategy in the campaigns that I’ve run. I’ve never been a prolific fundraiser but what people will tell you about me is that there is nobody who will work harder or represent their district better.”

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7/9/09