In recent weeks, Florida has created quite a bit of political news as it relates to energy production, with members of Congress filing legislation both to encourage and discourage Florida as a contributor to our nation's energy portfolio through offshore energy production.
On the important topic of energy, Florida's red politicians get very purple. Given Florida's reliance on beach-driven tourism, politicians have largely stayed away from endorsing offshore drilling even if it occurred more than 100 miles off the coast.
It seems like just yesterday we recovered from the deluge of political ads to hit the airwaves and our mailboxes. If you have paid attention to the news, you know that the cycle never really stops and it will soon be back in our faces with presidential and congressional seats open in 2016.
The American job market is the best it's been in six years... This U.S. energy boom is creating many new jobs here in America, and it's a leading contributor to American workers' vaulting out of the unemployment line and into the middle class.
As we all know, Florida is an odd state for politics; one where Republicans control the Cabinet, House and Senate, but where voters have supported a Democratic presidential candidate the past two cycles.
As we all know, Florida is an odd state for politics; one where Republicans control the Cabinet, House and Senate, but where voters have supported a Democratic presidential candidate the last two cycles.
The more demand we can supply with U.S. energy, the better ... Yet federal policy seems headed in the opposite direction. Production has dropped 10 percent for oil and 31 percent for natural gas on government-controlled lands since 2010 and is off-limits entirely in 87 percent of federal offshore acreage.
The Department of Energy recently approved an application from Alaska LNG to export natural gas. But there's a catch: these exports can only go to nations where the United States has a free-trade agreement in place.
With a recent veto by President Obama of Keystone XL Pipeline bipartisan legislation, we are left without direction on what will happen with this project. The Senate failed in an attempt to rally a veto override vote, and it is not likely that they will attempt further standalone Keystone legislation when facing a guaranteed veto from the President.
I was both encouraged and disappointed as I followed the recent U.S. House of Representatives' vote on the Keystone XL Pipeline, which will carry 830,000 barrels of oil per day into Gulf of Mexico refineries from Canada.
