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Alternative facts about the BP oil spill

The Gainesville Sun editorial board
A man picks up tar balls on the public beach in Pensacola Beach on June 24, 2010. Pensacola officials closed the beaches to swimmers as oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster washed ashore along the Alabama and Florida coasts. [AP Photo/Dave Martin, File]

Even in an era of “alternative facts” when “truth isn't truth,” former Florida Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottcamp’s false claim about the 2010 BP oil spill was shocking.

The spill “didn’t even reach the shores of Florida,” Kottcamp recently told a room full of reporters in Tallahassee, the Florida Phoenix news site reported. Kottcamp, who co-chairs a new group that seeks expanded offshore oil exploration, also said that “tarballs are naturally occurring.”

Those who lived through the 152-day BP oil spill, especially residents and owners of businesses on Florida’s Panhandle, know the truth. They saw the spill cause pellets of oil to wash up for miles on Pensacola’s beaches and elsewhere, requiring workers to shovel up the mess for months on end and devastating the tourism industry there.

Kottcamp’s group, Explore Offshore Florida, is counting on the public to forget or doubt that experience. Backed by the American Petroleum Institute and Florida Petroleum Council, the group is pushing to allow oil and gas drilling closer to Florida’s coast.

They frame their cause as only seeking to allow oil exploration rather than drilling, as if one wouldn't likely lead to the other. They downplay the risks to Florida’s natural environment and economy, despite residents seeing them firsthand in 2010.

For newcomers or residents with short memories, the ongoing crisis involving red tide and blue-green algae blooms in South Florida demonstrates the need to better protect our state’s environment. It also shows the need to be dubious when Florida politicians, current or former, tell the public not to worry about environmental threats.

In January, the Trump administration announced plans to open previously protected parts of the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean to oil and gas drilling. But Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke flew to Tallahassee to announce that Florida was exempt, paying a political favor to Gov. Rick Scott by helping his bid to be elected to the U.S. Senate.

Scott supported expanded offshore oil drilling when he first ran for office in 2010 but, as with other environmental issues, he’s changed his position to score political points. He has major personal investments in energy companies and his political action committee has received at least $880,000 in contributions from oil, gas and energy executives, as the Tampa Bay Times reported, so one wonder whether Scott will maintain his newfound opposition to drilling.

A healthy dose of skepticism is necessary given Scott's ties to President Donald Trump, whose administration has promoted fossil-fuel use as it rolls back environmental regulations. Whether through expanding oil drilling, freezing fuel-economy standards for vehicles or scrapping regulations of coal-fired power plants, Trump and his allies are taking actions that increase the carbon emissions that cause climate change.

Even as the costs of solar power and other renewable energy have declined, fossil-fuel executives are trying to maintain public support for dirty energy sources. Don’t buy it when Kottcamp and other oil-industry advocates spew alternative facts about the drilling that has already befouled Florida’s environment and shouldn’t be allowed to do so again.