Donald Trump stirred up rat's nest last week when he opened the nation's entire coastline to oil drilling, against the wishes of every coastal governor, including Republicans and Democrats. No one wants a repeat of the Deepwater Horizon disaster on their shores.
But today a big fat rat came crawling out of that nest: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced that Florida would be exempt from coastal drilling.
Why Florida?
The governors of New York, New Jersey, California and several other states requested exclusion from the drilling plan last year, while the plan was being drafted, citing the tourism value of their coastlines.Well, duh. Isn't it obvious? Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort is in Florida. When he suddenly realized -- almost a week later -- that opening up the entire US coastline to oil drilling would put his own property at risk of being hit by a massive oil spill, he had Zinke exempt Florida.
“The problem is that the request for exclusion came from most of the East Coast states and all of the West Coast states, and yet it was just granted to Florida,” said Sierra Weaver, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “The problem is treating Florida differently from every other state that requested exclusion.”
In fact, Florida was not among the states that had requested an exemption to the drilling plan. Throughout his political career, Governor Scott has veered between supporting and opposing offshore drilling.
Legal experts said they were perplexed by Mr. Zinke’s move. “No one knows what the legal implications are, because this has never been done before,” Ms. Weaver said.
When well people finally understand that Trump cares only about himself?
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