Oil drilling may beanissue that is still awaiting traction in the Legislature, largely because it's an election year, but don't tell Don Baldauf that.
Baldauf has oil fever. And, he's convinced he knows the answer to winning public support for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico --the state simply declaresall of the submerged lands extending 125 miles out into the Gulf of Mexicoits own possession. Then, the state sets the boundary for permitted oil drilling at no nearer than 25 miles. Voila! No oil rigs are visible from Florida's Gulf beaches, and the state is able to collect royalties on drilling even in the far off shore waters that the federal government now controls.
A 1953 congressional act dealing with submerged waters gives the state the ability to take such action, Baldauf says, either through a constituitonal referendum or by executive order of the governor.
Oil drilling became an issue last year when a bill introduced by incoming House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, proposed giving the Florida Cabinet the ability to vote to allow oil drilling in state waters as close as three miles off shore. The House approved the bill, but the Senate balked and has been slowly studying the proposal ever since.
The issue could come again in a serious way during the current session. But, the backers of oil drilling, Florida Energy Associates and their lobbying firm Southern Strategies, have been staying low key but at the ready on the off chance the Senate decides to take up the issue.
Who is Don Baldauf? And, does his idea have merit?
Baldauf says he is not in any way connected to the Texas group that began pushing for oil drillling last year nor with the lobbying or public relations firm working on behalf of that group.
He's a fire alram salesman from Bradenton. He's also a long-shot Republican candidate for the Congressional District 13 seat, running in a primary race against the entrenched and much better known Republican incumbent, Vern Buchanan of Sarasota. That Baldauf would take on the seemingly impossible task of unseating the popular Buchanan, with a campaign chest Baldauf himself describes self-mockingly as "a bank account with $8 in it," might suggest the kind of person he is.
As Baldauf tells the story, he wasconsidering the oil drilling issue and chanced upon an encounter withSecretaryof the Interior Ken Salazar, and it was Salazar who mentioned the obscure federal Submerged Lands Act of 1953, suggesting Baldauf check into it.
"I don't know if he was being helpful or a smart guy," Baldauf says. "I was talking to him in New Orleans last April about offshore oil drilling. I was there to put my opinion forward as to oil drilling in Florida."
Baldauf said he grew up in Pennsylvannia"about 100 feet from an oil rig" and has never been put off by the thought of off-shore drilling in Florida.
In the past few months, he has been making the rounds and spreading the gospel. His knowledge of the issue has so impressed people that nearly everyone from the governor's staff to leaders in the House and Senate, as well as lobbyists working the issue, have met with him.
Meeting after meeting has gone well, he says. "Everybody likes the idea. And everybody looks into it for themselves. Once they do, they get it."
But, there the whole thing lies. Nobody has stepped forward to advance the idea, although Baldauf says Kathy Mears in the governor's office was interested enough for her to ask him to write up a proposed executive order "to see what it looks like."
Mears, among others, confirmed she spoke with Baldauf and asked him to show here what a hypothetical executive order would look like.
"Mr. Balduaf contacted the governor's office proposing an executive order," she said, "and it went over to the governor's legal office which has taken it under advisement."
As to the merits of the idea, that nobody is lining up to push forward on it may indicate something. But, Baldauf says he is undeterred.
"Even the oil guys we talked to," he says, "we're surprised we found something they didn't know about."
To learn more about Baldauf's idea, hear a radio interview with U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio on the matter or see a copy of the executive order drawn up for Gov. Crist, click here.
