The US House of Representatives has passed a bill to permanently ban offshore drilling in Atlantic and Pacific coastal waters, as well as off Florida's Gulf Coast, a move Florida lawmakers say will help the state's tourism industry and military installations.
Representative Francis Rooney, Florida's most pro-environment Republican member of Congress, sponsored the legislation and 12 other Florida lawmakers from both parties signed on.
"I think it's an important first step," Rooney said in an interview with the Miami Herald.
"We're all going to have to all work together to convince President (Donald) Trump that this is so important for Florida, that he's got to support us on this."
The bill, Protecting and Securing Florida's Coastline Act, passed on a vote of 248-180, with 21 Republicans joining 227 Democrats in favour. Four Democrats and one independent, along with 175 Republicans, voted against the bill.
Rooney's bill now heads to the US Senate, where Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio has a bill that would also ban offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, but only through to 2027.
A congressional source said the White House issued a veto threat on Rooney's bill because the Trump administration is uncomfortable with a permanent ban on offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, though the White House is open to Rubio's plan.
Rooney said a permanent ban would help stabilise the state's fishing and tourism industries, noting that business on Florida's west coast suffered after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, even though the environmental effects were mainly limited to the Florida Panhandle hundreds of miles away.
The boundary for the proposed offshore drilling ban would match the current moratorium map that expires in 2022.
Offshore drilling is permitted in central and western portions of the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas and Louisiana coasts, and lawmakers in those states generally oppose restrictions on drilling.
Republicans outside Florida argued that the bill restricts opportunities for energy growth.
The House of Representatives also passed a bill prohibiting the Department of Interior from expanding offshore drilling into the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf planning area, which includes the South Atlantic Ocean off Florida's East Coast and the Straits of Florida to the south, along with the US Pacific coast.
Australian Associated Press
