Senate race sweetener

Trump delivers a Senate race sweetener to Scott

Critics rage at administration pledge to spare Florida from expanded offshore oil drilling.

By MARC CAPUTO, BEN LEFEBVRE, MATT DIXON and BRUCE RITCHIE

Donald Trump delivered a big political contribution to Rick Scott on Tuesday as the Florida governor contemplates a bid for U.S. Senate: a pledge to spare Florida from administration plans to expand offshore oil drilling nationwide.

The surprise announcement from Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke — who went to the trouble of flying to Tallahassee to stand beside Scott — outraged environmentalists and Democrats who insist the decision was a political ploy that unlawfully gave preferential treatment to Florida, a swing state that voted for Trump and that’s home to his so-called “Winter White House” escape at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach.

Zinke made sure that the term-limited governor got all the credit. In response to a question about what was the final determining factor in his decision, Zinke said: “The governor."

"You have a tremendous governor that is straightforward, easy to work for, says exactly what he means. And I can tell you Florida is well-served,” Zinke said.

Zinke’s glowing endorsement of Scott has become de facto policy for Trump, who has tried for more than a year to woo Scott publicly and privately to run for U.S. Senate against Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson. The veteran senator is one of the most vocal opponents of offshore oil-drilling in Florida, an issue that typically enjoys broad bipartisan support in a state whose economy depends heavily on tourism and development along 1,300 miles of coastline.

Scott used to be an exception to the blanket opposition to offshore oil drilling. In 2010, the then-political newcomer voiced more support for oil exploration, but the position became a political liability in the state after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill coated some Florida beaches with tar balls and damaged tourism in parts of the Gulf.

A 2016 University of South Florida-Nielson poll found that 47 percent of state residents see offshore drilling as a move in the “wrong direction,” a distinction that makes it one of the most unpopular policy proposals in the state.

So when Zinke announced last Thursday that the administration wanted to open vast new stretches of federal waters to oil and gas drilling, opposition was united in Florida — from liberal environmentalists to conservative lawmakers and even Scott, who issued a rare public denunciation of the policy.

At the time, Democrats and Nelson supporters highlighted the unpopular policy announcement by a president who’s flagging in the polls. Nelson’s campaign began fundraising off of the initial announcement to expand oil exploration.

One Republican insider, however, told POLITICO shortly after the initial announcement that the administration would scale the plan back somewhat to give Scott a political boost that would “be a big win, and it won’t be Bill Nelson bringing it home.”

As late as Tuesday, Nelson was still fundraising off the drilling announcement. “President Trump is about to hand a huge victory to the oil industry and put Florida’s entire economy at risk,” Nelson’s campaign wrote. “He just announced plans to rollback offshore drilling regulations that were put in place after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, and open up nearly all federal waters to offshore oil drilling — including the eastern Gulf of Mexico.”

But just before that email solicitation was sent out, Zinke was unexpectedly standing in Tallahassee’s regional airport with Scott announcing the reversal to the Florida capital press corps.

Nelson said he was incredulous.

“I have spent my entire life fighting to keep oil rigs away from our coasts. But now, suddenly, Secretary Zinke announces plans to drill off Florida's coast and four days later agrees to ‘take Florida off the table’? I don’t believe it,” Nelson said in a written statement. “This is a political stunt orchestrated by the Trump administration to help Rick Scott, who has wanted to drill off Florida's coast his entire career. We shouldn’t be playing politics with the future of Florida.”

Similarly, the Sierra Club of Florida said the decision was “a purely political move to aid the ambitions of Rick Scott.” And the League of Conservation Voters called it a “publicity stunt.”

Scott’s spokesman, Jonathan Tupps, said oil-drilling opponents should not be upset.

“Senator Nelson and anyone else who opposes oil drilling off of Florida’s coast should be happy that the governor was able to secure this commitment,” he said. “This isn’t about politics. This is good policy for Florida.”

Tupps said that, contrary to claims by Scott’s opponents, the governor and staff have frequently discussed Florida’s opposition to more offshore oil drilling with the Interior Department. Scott personally raised the issue with Zinke in an October meeting in Washington, Tupps said.

Why Zinke suddenly reversed months of planning four days after announcing the new oil and gas exploration policy are unclear. Zinke also made his announcement via Twitter after a brief question-and-answer session with reporters in Tallahassee.

In reversing the policy for Florida, however, Zinke may have have run afoul of the Administrative Procedure Act, critics said. That could give ammunition to California and Atlantic Coast states wanting to get on the same no-drill list -- the opposite of what President Donald Trump intended when he directed Zinke to expand oil companies’ access to federal waters to boost U.S. energy production.

The American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard earlier in the day had applauded the Trump administration’s plan to make all available federal waters available for drilling, saying “It represents a bold acknowledgement of the industry’s advancements in technology to safely access U.S. energy resources.”

Almost immediately after Zinke’s announcement, lawmakers from other states took to Twitter to raise the specter of lawsuits, which could lead to courtroom entanglements for Interior’s offshore drilling plan. The proposal was supposed to go into effect in 2019 and offer acres off the coast of Florida in late 2022 when a drilling moratorium officially ends.

“Under the Administrative Procedure Act, an agency can't act in an arbitrary and capricious manner. In this case, exempting Florida but not California (which has an even larger coastal economy) is arbitrary and capricious,” Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat and attorney, told POLITICO.

“So the agency would either have to not exempt Florida, or in the alternative, exempt Florida, California and any other state that can show the coasts are important to the state's tourism and economy.”

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra also hammered that point on Twitter, echoing Scott’s argument against drilling off the Florida coast to say “California is also ‘unique" & our ‘coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver.’ Our ‘local and state voice’ is firmly opposed to any and all offshore drilling. If that's your standard, we, too, should be removed from your list. Immediately.”

In Virginia, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine took a more low key approach. “Virginia’s governor (and governor-elect) have made this same request [as Florida], but we have not received the same commitment. Wonder why...” he tweeted.