Special Legislative Session Ends Abruptly July 21, 2010
Posted by grchair in economy, environment, Legislative.comments closed
Tuesday, July 20, 2:30 p.m. – By Jack Hebert, Fourth AAF Lobbyist
Tallahassee – Moments ago the Florida Senate on a vote of 18-16 agreed to adjourn Sine Die, effectively ending the special session on oil drilling called previously by Gov. Crist. Earlier the Florida House did much the same, meeting for only slightly less than an hour, before agreeing to adjourn by a vote of 67-44. Debate in the House was previously limited by a vote to 10 minutes per side.
The Governor called the proposed four-day session hoping to get the legislature to pass a proposed constitutional amendment which, if approved by a super-majority of Florida voters this fall, would have prohibited drilling for oil in Florida’s waters. But Republican leaders on both sides, suggesting the Governor’s call was nothing more than a political stunt, chose instead to dispense with his idea claiming more time was needed to study a wider variety of issues associated with the Deepwater-Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf.
“There is no silver bullet or quick fix to this problem, and anyone who tells Floridians differently simply does not respect our citizens,” House Speaker Cretul said in his opening comments. “Simple solutions designed to produce sound bites, photo-ops and political attacks will do nothing to help Floridians in need recover,” Cretul continued.
The Speaker also announced the formation of six workgroups charged with looking at greater detail at the situation and its affects, then reporting back to him by late August. Over in the Senate, a special committee already studying Florida’s economy was scheduled to meet later today to discuss the oil spill’s fallout.
The abrupt adjournment of the House presumably altered the Senate’s original plans to spend several days in committee meetings studying the issue in greater depth. A variety of senators were recognized for floor debate before the final vote was taken effective ending the session.
BP won’t pay for more Florida beach ads; Crist may call lawyers July 14, 2010
Posted by grchair in advertising, economy, environment.Tags: 4AAF, AAF, advertising, BP, economy, environment, Florida, oil
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By Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Wednesday, July 14, 2010
ST. PETERSBURG — In the first month of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, Gov. Charlie Crist asked BP for $25 million to pay for an advertising blitz to promote how clean Florida’s beaches are.
BP said yes, and the state spent all the money, only to see tourism drop anyway.
Two weeks ago, Crist asked BP for another $50 million. This time, the company said no.
Now Crist is talking about calling in the lawyers — and complaining about how much money the company appears to be spending on television and newspaper ads that plug BP’s efforts to cope with the oil spill.
“To say I’m disappointed would be an understatement,” the governor, looking peeved, told a roundtable of Tampa Bay area officials Tuesday gathered at SRI St. Petersburg to get an update on matters related to the spill. The state has lined up an expert legal team, he said, “and we’re ready if BP doesn’t do the right thing.”
He stopped short of using the word “lawsuit,” instead telling reporters, “We’re trying to force them to do the right thing, like they say they’re doing in their commercials.”
Ninety percent of Florida’s shoreline has seen no oil at all, Crist said. Only the beaches in the Panhandle have been hit by tar balls, tar mats and other thick oil goop. Yet the whole state has been tarred by the perception that the beaches are tainted, he said, hurting Florida’s $65 million tourism industry.
That first $25 million BP sent “went quickly,” Crist said, but the need to entice tourists to come back continues as the oil keeps spewing from a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico.
In his letter to Crist, Douglas J. Suttles, chief operating officer of BP, wrote that since most of Florida’s beaches are clean, “we are exploring other options on how to promote tourism on a more local level to benefit those most directly impacted.” For example, he cited the company’s support for a Jimmy Buffett concert in Gulf Shores, Ala.
Crist compared the long-running spill to both a natural disaster and a Bill Murray movie, calling it “a hurricane that comes ashore every day. It’s like Groundhog Day. It’s day after day after day.”
Yet instead of approving more money for Florida to run ads about its beaches, Crist said, the company is running ads touting its own cleanup and claims efforts.
“It’s abundantly clear to me that we need that money to share the story about what’s going on on Florida’s beaches, and what needs to be shared is that most of our beaches are beautiful,” Crist said.
“The notion that they’re spending who knows how much money to put a good face on BP — how does that help us here?”
BP says it has spent $3.5 billion on cleaning up the spill. It has also set aside $20 billion in a special fund to compensate victims across the Gulf coast.
Last month, President Obama criticized BP for spending an estimated $50 million on an ad and public relations campaign to repair the company’s battered image.
BP spokeswoman Lucia Bustamente would not say how much the company has spent on its own ad campaign, which has included daily full-page ads in the St. Petersburg Times and other newspapers as well as commercials on CNN and other national channels.
“We don’t disclose that,” she said.
Craig Pittman can be contacted at craig@sptimes.com.
