Sunday, March 21, 2010

SLICK OIL UPDATE

Thanks to the St Pete Times for this update



Florida should forget about drilling in gulf

In Print: Sunday, March 21, 2010



Drilling off Florida's coast won't increase America's independence from foreign oil, lower gasoline prices or raise billions of dollars annually for the state. •

Those are among the predictable findings of a new nonpartisan report on offshore drilling commissioned by the Florida Senate president. It is inconceivable that any responsible state lawmaker still would consider leveraging the state's pristine shoreline — and the tourism customers it draws — for such little return. Yet Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Orlando, who is in line to be the next House speaker, is doggedly pushing a plan that could put drilling platforms within 10 miles of the west coast.

The report produced by a Tallahassee think tank offers some of the best information yet to refute the propaganda from an anonymous oil industry group, Florida Energy Associates, that wants Florida's ban lifted. The report shows that the most-generous industry estimates for what Florida could collect from drilling in state and federal waters is far less than $2 billion — the annual amount suggested by the energy group's economist.

The Collins Center for Public Policy produced "Potential Impacts of Oil & Gas Exploration in the Gulf" on behalf of the Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida, a group set up by the Legislature in 2005 and chaired by former St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker, a Republican. Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, asked the commission to take on the issue late last year due to concerns about a lack of neutral information on drilling.

The 40-page report uses a question-and-answer format to address 31 issues that have arisen since Florida Energy Associates began its push last year. It says the risk of a devastating oil spill off Florida's coasts has greatly diminished due to technology and safety precautions since the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. But it also acknowledges the risk remains whether the drilling occurs in state waters close to shore or in the federal waters of the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Most striking: Researchers don't think there is even enough oil in state waters to sustain the country's gasoline needs for a week. Advances in seismic technology may make it easier to find natural gas deposits, the report said. But it's not been tested in either the eastern gulf or near Florida. And harvesting natural gas in Florida would displace American-mined coal as a fuel, not foreign oil. The impact on energy costs would be minimal.

The report also states the obvious: Lifting Florida's ban would make it more likely Congress would lift its 2006 ban on the more profitable resources farther out in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, which extends as much as 125 miles from Florida's shore. The industry's endgame may be to get the drilling ban in state waters lifted merely to make it impossible to continue with the ban in federal waters.

But the eastern gulf doesn't have nearly the deposits found in the federal waters of the central and western gulf — the areas that benefit Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. And none of those states have received windfalls anywhere close to $2 billion annually from offshore drilling.

If the federal ban was lifted, Florida's annual share of revenues could be as low as $20 million (based on traditional government estimates) to as high as $180 million (based on industry estimates), according to the report. New jobs would number between 1,000 to 2,500.

The report purposely does not estimate revenues from drilling in state waters, except to say they would likely be less than those of other states with greater deposits. Alabama generates the most income from near-shore production: $200 million a year. What does $200 million buy in Florida? Not much compared to a $66 billion state budget. Or compared to the potential risk to the No. 1 industry, tourism.

Supporters of drilling off Florida's shores are evoking a patriotic duty to solve America's dependence on foreign oil. Cannon warns of riots in the streets if Floridians cannot get food because there is no fuel for trucks to deliver to groceries. But these are the facts: The estimated deposits in Florida's state-owned waters aren't even enough to fuel America's needs for a week, and lifting the drilling ban would provide relatively little money for the state. It would open the beaches and the state's tourism industry to additional risk — regardless of new drilling technology. The Senate has the answers it needs to tell Cannon to forget about drilling.

Drilling in Florida waters

The state owns submerged lands from the coast to 10 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and three miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean. Here are some statistics that speak to drilling issues.

100 million

Government estimates of barrels of oil in state- owned water

140 million

Barrels of oil the U.S. uses in a week, or 20 million barrels a day

Unknown

What Florida could collect from drilling in state-owned waters, though experts expect less than other gulf states because of geological formations.

$200 million

Average annual amount Alabama collects for drilling in its state-owned waters — the most of any gulf state.

$189 million

Amount the Florida Lottery is expected to raise this year to enhance the state's education offerings

$66 billion

Florida's 2009-2010 state budget

Source: Potential Impacts of Oil & Gas Exploration in the Gulf, Collins Center for Public Policy; 2009 Florida General Appropriations Act (SB 2600)



[Last modified: Mar 19, 2010 09:05 PM]


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Thursday, March 18, 2010

Man Oh Man Oh Mangrove

Mangroves


Honeymoon Island Florida

Take the Mangal Cay Mangrove Island tour

The Red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) is the tallest of all local species. It grows to heights over 80 feet tall (25m). It has large broad leaves grow to 5 inches (12cm) and terminate with a blunt point. The leaves are waxy, dark green above and pale green below. The trunk and limbs have grey bark that covers a dark red wood. The key characteristics of the Red mangrove are the "prop roots" derived from the trunk and “drop rootsfrom the branches. The seedling or propagule is almost 6 inches long (l5 cm) and cigar-shaped.

The second tallest species is the Black mangrove (Avicennia germinans), reaching heights over 65 feet(20m). The elliptical, green leaves approach lengths of 4 inches (10cm) and are often encrusted with salt. The leaf undersurface is covered with dense hairs. The bark is dark and scaly. The key characteristics of the Black mangroves are the aerial roots known as pneumatophores born from underground horizontal cable roots. Living in oxygen deprived sediment more than 10,000 pneumatophores may be found on a single tree. The propagules are approximately one inch (2-3cm) long and lima bean shaped.

The White mangrove (Laguncularia racemosa) is the smallest species existing as a tree or shrub with maximum heights of 50 feet (l5 m). The leaf shape is a broad, flat oval rounded at both ends. Leaf lengths approach three inches (7cm). Two glands are found at the base of each leaf at the apex of the petiole. When growing in oxygen deprived sediment the White mangrove often develop peg roots which are similar to pneumatophores except they are shorter and more stout in appearance. The propagules are very small, usually less than 0.2 inches (0.5 cm).

The Buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus) is an associate of the community, but is more frequently found in the upland transitional zone. Its pointed leaves possess salt glands as openings alternating along the midrib on the underside of the leaf. Rough bark exists on older trees which is often covered with epiphytes (plants which live on other plants). Rather than producing seedlings that germinate on the parent tree, buttonwoods flower with the formation of a button-like seed case.

SEACAMP ASSOCIATION, INC. 1998 Florida Department of Education

Discover Life in the Mangrove




Black and White mangroves regulate ionic concentration by excreting salt through glands on the leaf surface.



Lenticels and spongy tissue in red mangrove prop roots and modified branches facilitates gas
(oxygen) exchange.






In Black mangroves, spongy pneumatophores (up to l0,000 per tree) extend up to 20 cm above the sediment.



What is a propagule?

The red mangrove flowers mostly during the summer months. The long cigar shaped propagules are often found hanging on the tree all year long. The black mangrove flowers all summer long with the lima bean shaped propagules produced during late summer and early fall. The white mangrove flowers mid to late summer with small green pea shaped propagules produced a month later.











Hurricanes and Mangroves... check this out

A REALLY COMPLETE STUDY FROM THE Earth Encyclopedia on mangroves.

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