Thursday, July 2, 2009

It is not too late to stop drilling legislation

A Senate committee has voted in support of a comprehensive energy bill designed the improve the nation's energy system [and it] is headed to the full Senate for approval. The problem is that a harmful amendment was added to the bill that will open up the eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil drilling as close as 9.25 miles off Pensacola and 45 miles from the Florida coast, shrinking the current 100-mile buffer zone.

A bipartisan compromise reached only a few years ago was blown away by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee vote. This will allow drilling rigs within the only offshore U.S. live-fire military aircraft training range, and has enraged Sen. Bill Nelson, who is threatening a filibuster. No state OCS [Outer Continental Shelf] revenue-sharing was adopted. This will go down in history as "Let's Break a Deal," and is expected to become the poison pill that kills the entire Obama energy bill in the Senate.

More importantly, any drilling in the eastern Gulf would deliver toxic drilling muds via the Gulf loop current into the fragile shrimp and breeding areas of the Lower Florida Keys, and then up the Gulf Stream along Florida's endangered coral reefs. Satellite images show that water discolored from pollution sometimes flows from the Mississippi Delta along the loop current and Gulf Stream all the way to the North Carolina coast. ...

It's not too late to stop this train wreck! Please voice your opposition to this harmful amendment that can destroy Florida's tourism economy, our environment, and our quality of life. The risks are too great, more drilling is the wrong approach, new drilling will have little effect on gas prices before 2030, untapped oil and gas leases are already available and renewable energy should be our focus.

Please contact Florida Sens. Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. Tell them oil and water don't mix -- save Florida from oil drilling and tar balls on our beaches. ...

For more information, contact Reef Relief at 305-294-3100.

DeeVon Quirolo

Reef Relief

Key West

Sandford Birdsey is Key West personified

You know how they say, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention"?

Well, I am paying attention -- and I am outraged.

When I first came to Key West with four kids, ages 1, 2, 3, and 4, I would walk them down to Simonton Street to see the awesome hand-painted awnings outside Sign of Sandford. I would explain how this amazing little woman artist would roll out the canvas and hand-roll the colors onto it, and what an intricate process this was. Over the years I would return often, teaching them culture, while showing them her incredible array of artworks. Maybe not everyone knows but this woman is a national treasure. When JFK was president her art hung in the White House's private galleries.

Yet I read in the June 20 Citizen that as Mrs. Birdsey held an en plein aire painting class down by [Key West] Bight she is "scolded" off the property! The establishment claimed their bartender "had to make a living." I'd like to tell them something: Respect your elders!

Sandford was in my water aerobics classes at the Pier House pool for nearly 10 years. Her presence brought so many more participants to our class, just because of her fame, class, and true Key West "flava."

Everywhere she goes, her beautiful artistic presence lights up the place and her twangy Georgia accent telling stories and recounting past experiences holds listeners spellbound with her magic. Nearly every tourist who sees her work is so blown away, they just have to take a little piece of Key West home with them.

And, after five minutes in her studio, they find it so hard to choose from all the delicious paintings of this island we love that they just have to come back again. Sandford Birdsey is Key West.

So, if you spot an itty-bitty lil' white-haired doll of a woman in front of an easel, teaching others her craft anywhere on this island of ours, show some respect and "hail the queen"!

Remember, every return tourist she brings could be the one eating in your restaurant, shopping in your store or gallery, snorkeling off your charter boat, staying at your guesthouse, or sunning at our state park.

We love you, Sandford. Thank you for making Key West your home. It's all about appreciation.

Molly Brown

Key West