The offshore drilling rigs that pepper the central Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana and Texas tap some of the nation’s richest oil and natural gas reserves.
That proven and profitable productivity is why the energy industry has pushed for decades to open vast Gulf waters off Florida’s West Coast to exploration and drilling.
But it’s far less likely for rigs to rise off Miami Beach, Islamorada or anywhere else along Florida’s heavily populated Atlantic coast — and that was the case even before the Trump administration last week pulled state waters “off the table” after a Tallahassee meeting that seemed intended to boost Gov. Rick Scott’s rumored run for U.S. Senate.
There is one big reason why: Money.
Even industry experts see little chance of making much of it plumbing the depths of the Florida Straits and Atlantic coast, at least barring the discovery of some unexpected mother lode or a skyrocketing upturn in oil and gas prices.
Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald.
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