WATCHING WASHINGTON OFFSHORE FLORIDA AT ISSUE

Logically, the arguments are against Florida's push to ban drilling off its shores.

But politics, not logic, were at play during a Senate energy committee hearing on the issue last week.

The event was a major show for the Florida television and print media: Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), Sen. Connie Mack (R-Fla.), and Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles, a former U.S. senator, sat together and argued against drilling.

GRAHAM'S BILLS

Before the committee was Graham's bill to permanently ban leasing off Southwest Florida and within 100 miles of the Florida coastline, cancel existing leases and have the federal government reimburse oil companies, and bar leasing, drilling, and production off the Florida Panhandle until 2002.

Last year the Bush administration deferred drilling off Southwest Florida, and a congressional spending moratorium blocked most other leasing and development.

A second Graham bill would give governors a veto over the Minerals Management Service's offshore leasing decisions.

Sen. Bennett Johnston (D-La.), energy committee chairman, made it clear the hearing was a matter of senatorial courtesy, and the bills had little chance in his committee.

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) noted Florida ranks fourth among the states in oil consumption, 15th in gas consumption, and second in the number of automobiles.

Sen. Malcolm Wallop (R-Wyo.) asked, "Why is gas production off the Panhandle more of an environmental threat to Florida than the 11.3 million tons/year of petroleum and petroleum products that enter at Port Everglades via tankers?"

Johnston said, "Perhaps most troublesome, the bill would require the buyback-I'm not sure this passes the 'straight face' test-of 221 leases off Florida at an estimated cost to the federal government of more than $1 billion." Last year's Budget Enforcement Act requires the bill's sponsors to find offsetting funds.

Graham replied, "I don't accept it as a given that compensation is required" for oil companies. He said they have not demonstrated they can comply with environmental protection obligations of the leases.

Chiles said Florida won't pay. "We never received any profits from the federal government's leasing. If oil companies want their money back, they need to talk to the folks who took it."

Edward Prince, chairman of Digicon Inc., said cancellation would leave seismic contractors "holding a bag full of worthless seismic data."

Prince said Digicon has spent more than $30 million to gather 40,000 miles of Florida data since 1985, much of it recorded and processed in the past 2 years.

CHEVRON GAS DISCOVERY

David Lott, Chevron U.S.A. exploration vice-president, said his company has made a significant dry gas discovery that extends across several leases within the proposed buffer zone.

"If permitted," he said, "Chevron plans to transport the gas by pipeline west and onshore at our Pascagoula, Miss., refinery. Florida will be virtually unaffected by our activities."

The project has cost Chevron $60 million so far.

Lott said, "Simple reimbursement of such expenditures would not adequately redress the wrong suffered. We believe it is imperative that the lost business opportunity and loss of reserves already found due to lease cancellation be compensated."