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Senate Memorial

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A memorial to the Congress of the United States, urging

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unified resistance to proposals for the revision of

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measures protecting the coastline of Florida against oil

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and gas drilling.

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     WHEREAS, Florida's Congressional Delegation has long stood

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united against proposals for oil and gas drilling off the state's

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coasts, and

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     WHEREAS, across party lines, Florida's representatives in

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Congress have long recognized that the protection of Florida's

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fragile coastal ecology is vital to the state's economy as well

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as its ecology, and have understood that, in Florida, the economy

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and the ecology are indeed inseparable, and

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     WHEREAS, one major oil spill off the coast of Florida, which

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is always a possibility regardless of advances in safety and

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engineering, would jeopardize Florida's multi-billion-dollar

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tourism industry, and

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     WHEREAS, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita demonstrated beyond

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doubt the extraordinary risks of placing additional drilling

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operations in the Gulf of Mexico - a short-term economic risk and

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a long-term ecological risk, and

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     WHEREAS, routine offshore drilling operations discharge

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thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals into surrounding waters,

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smother bottom-dwelling organisms and sea grasses with cuttings

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and debris, and generate large amounts of air pollution, and

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     WHEREAS, scientists have alerted the public to the presently

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unpredictable results of contaminating marine organisms and

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ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico, which are a vital part of the

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food chain throughout the Southeastern United States and the

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entire country, and

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     WHEREAS, the Energy Information Service has determined that

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the United States owns only 3 percent of the world's proven oil

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reserves, and therefore expanded offshore drilling would not

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reduce our dependence of foreign oil, and

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     WHEREAS, society stands at a point at which our almost

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exclusive reliance on oil drilling has led to many of the

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problems we face today, and the energy policy of this nation

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should henceforth be based on the use of viable 21st-century

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energy sources, NOW, THEREFORE,

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Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

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     That the Congress of the United States is urged to stand

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strong and united against any attempt to allow oil or gas

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drilling along Florida's coastline.

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     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be

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dispatched to the President of the United States, to the

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President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the

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United States House of Representatives, and to each member of the

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Florida delegation to the United States Congress.