Oil Drilling

A Louisiana-based company plans to drill a well in an unincorporated area of Calhoun County, between Tallahassee and Panama City. But Apalachicola Riverkeeper contends that the project threatens the Apalachicola River and would be in the river’s floodplain.

Their proposal comes amid continued interest in expanding oil production within the Big Cypress National Preserve, an Everglades wilderness they consider sacred.

A new plan, hatched by the Miccosukee tribe and a nonprofit, might mean the end of future prospecting and drilling on hundreds of thousands of acres of land within Big Cypress, a crucial part of Florida’s Everglades.

Energy companies secured access to 1.6 million acres of waters offered at auction. It's the second time this month that the administration has opened federal territory for new fossil fuel drilling.

"These agencies are basically pretending that another catastrophic oil spill cannot possibly occur, cannot possibly be a risk for the Gulf of Mexico. And we know that that risk is real, and they need to be paying attention to that," said Chris Eaton, Earthjustice attorney.

The absence of chemical signatures in some areas could indicate that repopulation is moving the water and sediment around, but marine chemistry student John Hilliard said he wants to continue his research.

The Department of Environmental Protection in November denied a permit that Trend Exploration sought to drill an exploratory well to seek oil reserves.

An environmental advocacy group is challenging a plan to drill two more oil wells near the Everglades in the Big Cypress Swamp.

State environmental regulators ruled the proposed well could impact water supplies and endangered species, such as the Florida panther.

Burnett Oil Co. has proposed drilling at two sites in the Everglades of Big Cypress National Preserve, an important Florida panther habitat that sprawls across both sides of Alligator Alley. Environmentalists hope the Biden administration takes a more skeptical view.

The drilling is scheduled to start this month in waters off the Bahamas, just 150 miles from the Florida coast. It's raising alarms among environmental groups and businesses that rely on tourism.

Buried deep in the War-and-Peace -length tome that is this November's Florida ballot, voters will find a question asking if a ban on offshore drilling...