I once opposed offshore oil drilling but I now support it

Editor,

Governor Crist’s recommendation to consider oil drilling will probably gain a lot of support in this country. I was opposed to drilling in previous years because of the danger of pollution to our beautiful shorelines and the danger to wildlife.

Then again, Great Britain, Venezuela and many other countries have been doing it for many years without major disasters; and it seems to me that most recent oil spills were created by major oil tankers running aground or a problem with the condition of the tankers.

My biggest question right now: If the drilling gets approved, who will profit from it?

The oil deposits are a natural resource of this country and should benefit the citizens of this country. Will this be the case? Or will it benefit the oil companies that will export U.S. oil to other nations? Why don’t we keep the oil in this country?

Oil companies would not have record-breaking profits if our national resources were protected by law and, if sold, had to give some of the profits back to the citizens of the United States. If Kuwait can do it, why can’t we?
 
Before we approve drilling off the Florida coast and Alaska, I think it would be important to have a legislative guarantee that the oil and profits go back to the United States. I believe it should be possible to pay the oil companies on an outsourcing  program, where the United States owns the oil and decides where it goes, and oil companies get paid for the job they’re doing. This is the way much of our industry works now, and it should be done to protect our national resources and not a few privileged  oil executives.

Also, we have put so much money into saving Kuwait from Iraq, and now the war in Iraq is bringing this country into a huge deficit. I believe strongly the time has come to get some of the cost the United States incurred back from those countries. At this point, I believe their balance sheets look much better than ours. It’s time to collect some of our debt so that we can help the poor in the United States, and the people suffering from the natural disasters happening now.  
      
Helga Wetzold
Prudential Florida WCI Realty
Marco Island

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