What a difference nine months makes. For Florida Senate President (and U.S. Senate GOP candidate) Mike Haridopolos, it’s the gestation period for a viable, Republican-primary, oil-drilling position.
Last summer, in the aftermath of the BP oil spill, Haridopolos was telling fellow Floridians that it was time for the Sunshine state to “turn the page” away from Gulf drilling. Of course it was. It’s no secret that America can’t drill its way to energy independence, especially in the Gulf of Mexico. The risk-reward ratio, including jobs, is an unimpressive non-starter. Even a number of Republicans had no choice but to agree with Haridopolos’ page-turning epiphany.
But that was then and this is clearly not. Gas prices have been spiking. So has Haridopolos’ energy rhetoric.
“We have to start drilling, we need to become more self-dependent,” he said in a recent interview. “We need to open up those new opportunities in the Gulf and ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge). … America needs to lead by example.”
Apparently the example of 200 million gallons of oil in the Gulf of Mexico is no longer compelling. Neither, presumably, is BP’s less-than-helpful cooperation on victim compensation. Nor is the specter of Florida’s fragile eco-system and visitor-dependent economy being at the mercy of Deepwater Horizon, the sequel.
But it is a GOP primary position.