Florida voters banned drilling for oil and gas in state waters in yesterday’s mid-term elections. The ban extends three miles off of the Atlantic Coast and nine miles off of the Gulf Coast, but has no effect on federal waters beyond that.
“Floridians just protected our coastline from dirty and dangerous offshore drilling,” said Sarah Gledhill, a field campaigner for the Center for Biological Diversity, in a press release. “By passing Amendment 9, Floridians are sending a loud message to President Trump that we oppose his reckless plan to expand offshore drilling.”
The Trump administration has proposed a plan to expand offshore drilling off the the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, as well as most other oceans.
“Florida is one of the most biodiverse states in the nation,” said the group’s press release. The Center for Biological Diversity advocates for the health of Florida’s sea turtles, brown pelicans, roseate spoonbills, oysters and the North Atlantic right whale, whose calving grounds are off of the Florida and south Georgia east coasts. “All would be threatened by pollution and oil spills from offshore drilling,” it said.
The amendment also banned vaping indoors. Cigarette smoking indoors was banned prior to the invention of e-cigarettes and the amendment brings vaping regulation in line with that of tobacco cigarettes.
Some voters expressed confusion over the “bundling” of the two seemingly disparate items into one amendment. But the Constitutional Revision Commission, which meets every 20 years to make recommendations to the state’s constitution, said they fit together because they affect air and water quality.
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