President Bush spent most of last week urgently trying to improve his standing on environmental issues before Earth Day, and before Cheney’s secret Energy Task Force next month unveils proposals that are sure to make greens see red. But all politics is local–and, in the Bush world, familial. Bushes have a history in the gulf. Dad made his grubstake there 40 years ago as a pioneer in offshore drilling. As president, he stopped the development of some already-leased tracts in the gulf. Now his eldest son faces a dilemma in the same waters.
It turns out that there is more petroleum–especially natural gas–in the depths of the gulf than anyone realized. And the country desperately needs natural gas, since our de facto energy policy long has favored the construction of new, clean-burning, gas-fired electric-power plants. Dubya knows all this. He also knows that gulf-state senators–including Republican leader Trent Lott and cagey Democratic dealmaker John Breaux–are pushing hard for lease sales. So, of course, is the energy industry, home to some of Bush’s most generous contributors. One of the biggest big shots in the gas-power-plant business is Ken Lay, the head of Enron–a dear friend and big-time fund-raiser.
But Florida is the Big Green Plantain: Bush’s California, his must-win megastate. Jeb is likely to seek a second term as governor in 2002. The White House is trying to help, appointing an anti-Castro Cuban-American at State and a Jeb ally at Health and Human Services. Florida is a nature-loving state full of environmentalists, even if they don’t all own up to the label. Jeb has labored hard to be green: enacting a 10-year, $3 billion land-acquisition plan to help the Everglades, allocating $300 million for water-quality projects. This week he announces creation of the Tortugas Reserve in the gulf, the nation’s largest no-fishing zone.
Still, Jeb has no margin for error. Democrats, seething at Al Gore’s court-supported Florida defeat, have declared a jihad. “They will flood Florida with money and troops,” frets a GOP strategist. Even the weather is an enemy. A drought forced Jeb to seek–and get–federal permission to pump half-treated water into Florida aquifers. A decision by his brother to open the gulf to drilling could be a political disaster.
Jeb may have another chance to turn the tide when the president visits Florida this week. Meanwhile, Bushies in Washington and Tallahassee were looking to deal. The likely play, sources told NEWSWEEK, would allow the sale of Lease 181 to go ahead with slightly redrawn boundaries. In exchange, Commerce Secretary Don Evans (an oilman himself) could turn down Chevron’s request to begin drilling the closer-to-the-coast Destin Dome lease, which the company bought in 1988. Ironically, it was Bush senior who suspended drilling rights there. Chevron later named an oil tanker after Dubya’s foreign-policy tutor, Condoleezza Rice. Nice try, guys, but family comes first.
