Fred Thompson Is OK With Drilling For Oil In Everglades National Park

Fred Thompson is still on tour in Florida and took some questions while with Florida’s governor Charlie Crist. Thompson has said he would search for oil reserves wherever they might exist. Apparently he was unaware that drilling for oil near the Florida Everglades is a hot topic in Florida. He laughed when a reporter asked him if he would consider drilling for oil in the Everglades. “Gosh, no one has told me that there’s any major reserves in the Everglades, but maybe that’s one of the things I need to learn while I’m down here,” Thompson said. Governor Crist quickly chimed in, “We’d rather not do that.” “I’m not going to start by taking this, that, or the other off the table in terms of our overall energy situation,” Thompson said. “We’ve got to do better in terms of nuclear. We’ve got to do better in terms of finding environmentally friendly ways to use coal, which we have plenty of.” Thompson then said it would be a “drastic situation” to have to drill in the Everglades. But, “on the question of drilling in general, I don’t think anybody really prefers to have to drill at all anywhere. I have said we’ve got to use our own resources.” Thompson also said he supports drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. “Nobody wants to see $100 oil, either. So we have to do what’s reasonable and makes sense,” Thompson added. Also last week while in Cape Coral along Florida’s west coast, he said he would be in favor of drilling for oil right off of Florida’s Gulf coast. So you can see the drilling rigs right from the beaches that used to have white sand.
In 2002, while Thompson was a Senator, President Bush announced plans to buy oil and gas rights on 390,396 acres of federally protected land in the Everglades to safeguard them from drilling. This was a political move to help the President’s brother Jeb Bush get reelected as Governor. The rest of the National Park is open for drilling according to Thompson. Later on the phone Governor Crist said he, “wasn’t completely overjoyed with the positions,” Thompson had. Republican rival Mitt Romney was surprised that Thompson would say something like this. “You’re kidding?” said Romney, who also was campaigning in Florida. “Let’s take that off the table. We’re not going to drill in the Everglades. There are certain places in America that are national treasures and the Everglades is one of those.” I suggest we first drill for oil in Fred Thompson’s front yard.
Alan Cosgrove