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Bill Nelson vows to block Senate bill allowing oil drilling off Florida Gulf Coast

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson pledged to use “every possible procedural move” to prevent legislation opening areas off the Florida Gulf Coast to offshore drilling. In a letter to Senate leadership on Thursday, the Florida Democrat voiced his opposition to a vote by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which narrowly approved a GOP-backed offshore oil drilling measure. The brief letter went to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, and Minority Leader Harry Reid, the Senate’s leading Democrat. The committee…

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Share of aging temporarily sealed wells grows

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Five years after the Obama administration promised to move swiftly to permanently plug unused oil and gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico, even more shafts are lingering for longer periods with only temporary sealing, an investigation by The Associated Press shows. It is not clear how many incompletely sealed wells may have leaked — they generally are not monitored as carefully as active wells — but they contain fewer barriers to pent-up petroleum and rupture more easily. The threat…

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Hunt lionfish this mini-season, save reefs, keep more lobster

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The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is allowing divers to bring home an extra lobster per day during the state’s upcoming 2015 spiny lobster mini-season. The only stipulation, divers must also have harvested 10 or more lionfish on the same day. “Opportunities like this are a great way to get divers who are already in the water accustomed to removing lionfish,” said FWC Commissioner Brian Yablonski. “Our hope is that once lobster divers realize how easy it is…

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University research crew rescues distressed boater in Gulf

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A crew of university research students saved the life of a distressed boater in the Gulf of Mexico near Egmont Key. According to the University of South Florida, the crew and students aboard the Florida Institute of Oceanography’s Weatherbird II vessel on Saturday night heard an urgency call from the U.S. Coast Guard explaining that three men were in the water, separated from their boat about two miles away from the Weatherbird’s location. The Coast Guard rescued two of the…

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Gwen Graham, David Jolly lead bipartisan fight to ban oil drilling off Gulf beaches

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U.S. Reps. Gwen Graham and David Jolly introduced bipartisan legislation in Congress on Thursday to extend the prohibition on oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico through 2027. HR 2630, which seeks to amend the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006, extends the drilling ban — 125 miles off much of Florida’s Gulf Coast and as far as 235 miles in some areas – that is now set to expire in 2022. Graham, a Tallahassee Democrat, represents Florida’s…

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Gulf oil leak records cannot be kept secret, U.S. judge says

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A federal magistrate judge has rejected a company’s bid to preserve the confidentiality of numerous emails and reports about its failed efforts to halt a decade-old Gulf of Mexico oil leak. The documents could be evidence in a lawsuit that environmental groups filed against Taylor Energy Co., which owned a platform that toppled during Hurricane Ivan in 2004. An Associated Press investigation recently revealed evidence that the leak at the site of the toppled platform is worse than Taylor or…

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5 years after BP spill, drillers push into riskier depths

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Five years after the nation’s worst offshore oil spill, the industry is working on drilling even further into the risky depths beneath the Gulf of Mexico to tap massive deposits once thought unreachable. Opening this new frontier, miles below the bottom of the Gulf, requires engineering feats far beyond those used at BP’s much shallower Macondo well. But critics say energy companies haven’t developed the corresponding safety measures to prevent another disaster or contain one if it happens — a…

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