FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 9, 2002
State Wins Offshore Lease Case
TALLAHASSEE - A circuit judge has ruled that the State of Florida acted properly by
requiring, and denying, a permit for Coastal Petroleum Company prior to conducting offshore drilling operations. Judge J. Ralph Smith rejected the claims from Coastal who argued that the permit denial amounted to a "taking" of their property.
In Tuesday's bench ruling, Judge Smith found that the Department of Environmental
Protection's (DEP) refusal to issue a permit allowing Coastal to drill on offshore leases met the terms of a 1976 agreement between the State and Coastal. In that agreement, Coastal agreed to secure all necessary and current environmental permits before boring any wells. The State successfully argued that the environmental threat from drilling outweighs any potential benefit from oil found in the three-mile lease area located just six miles from the Florida coastline.
"I am very pleased that the court has vindicated the state's decision to deny a permit to drill for oil in the Gulf of Mexico, just miles off the Florida coast," said Governor Jeb Bush.
The lease area held by Coastal is in two tracts stretching from the eastern panhandle to the shores near Naples. Earlier this year, the federal government agreed to purchase all remaining active oil and gas leases within 100 miles from the coast of Florida. In 2001, Governor Bush persuaded the Department of the Interior to reduce the size of Lease Sale 181 by 75 percent, eliminating the possibility of any new oil and gas leases within 100 miles of Florida's coast.
"The DEP legal team has done an exemplary job arguing this case, along with counsel and staff from the Attorney General's office," said DEP Secretary David B. Struhs. "Judge Smith's
prudent decision is important both in financial and environmental terms. Taxpayers are better
protected from hundreds of millions of dollars in claims, while Florida's waters and sandy beaches are protected."
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Press Office
