Florida delegation warns Donald Trump against new offshore drilling plan

U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan and the full Florida congressional delegation are urging President Donald Trump to keep offshore drilling away from the state’s coastlines, pressing him to maintain a moratorium he put in place in 2020.

Buchanan, co-Chair of the 30-member bipartisan delegation, joined U.S. Sen. Rick Scott and Sen. Ashley Moody in leading a letter asking Trump to uphold his executive order extending a ban on oil and gas leasing off Florida’s Gulf and east coasts through 2032.

“President Trump made the right call in 2020 when he protected Florida from offshore drilling, and we’re asking him to keep those safeguards in place,” Buchanan said. “Florida’s coastline is essential to our tourism-based economy, environment and military readiness. A single mistake offshore could cost our state billions of dollars. We cannot afford to lose even an inch of these critical protections.”

The Florida lawmakers sent the letter in response to a program proposed by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which would open part of the Eastern Gulf of America to new oil and gas drilling. The area overlaps with waters explicitly protected under Trump’s executive order.

In the letter, the delegation expressed strong opposition to any attempts to expand offshore oil and gas drilling off Florida’s coasts to protect “the incredible value Florida’s pristine coasts have to our state’s economy, environment, and military community.” They added that Trump’s 2020 action received overwhelming and bipartisan support.

Lawmakers also warn that the newly proposed leasing area falls inside the Gulf Test Range, a large military training zone used for advanced air and weapons systems testing. They describe the range as a critical national security asset.

“The Gulf Test Range remains an integral part of Department of War training to ensure mission readiness and is supported by multiple military bases in Florida’s Panhandle,” the lawmakers wrote. “Collectively, these bases employ tens of thousands of military and civilian personnel and are of critical importance to national security.”

The area is the largest multidomain military training and testing complex in the country, and the lawmakers stated that “protecting this range from encroachment, including oil exploration, is essential.” The letter says more than 50,000 jobs in the Panhandle depend directly on the military facilities tied to the range.

The delegation cites Eglin Air Force Base as a key example, noting it “supports 20,000 personnel, provides the country with $11 billion in economic impact every year, and currently boasts 123,000 square miles of water range, which would all have to be reduced in an instance of an encroachment of the Gulf Test Range.”

The delegation also points to the economic weight of Florida’s tourism industry, and its vulnerability to fallout from potential oil spills, arguing that the risks outweigh any short-term gains.

“Florida’s beaches alone generate more than $127.7 billion per year in tourism spending and support over 2.1 million tourism-related jobs,” lawmakers wrote. “Unfortunately, all these resources suffered devastating harm during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010. That disaster wiped billions of dollars from Florida’s industries and caused irreparable damage to our environment and coastal communities.”

“For these reasons, we urge you to uphold your existing moratorium and keep Florida’s coasts off the table for oil and gas leasing,” they added. “Florida’s economy, environment, and military readiness depend on this commitment.”

Every member of the Florida congressional delegation signed the letter, including Buchanan, Scott, Moody and U.S. Reps. Aaron Bean, Gus Bilirakis, Kat Cammack, Kathy Castor, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Mario Díaz-Balart, Byron Donalds, Neal Dunn, Randy Fine, Lois Frankel, Scott Franklin, Maxwell Frost, Carlos Giménez, Mike Haridopolos, Laurel Lee, Anna Paulina Luna, Brian Mast, Cory Mills, Jared Moskowitz, Jimmy Patronis, John Rutherford, María Elvira Salazar, Darren Soto, Greg Steube, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Daniel Webster and Frederica Wilson.