Congresswoman Kathy Castor re-filed her bill today entitled the Florida Coastal Protection Act, which would prohibit oil drilling, leasing, preleasing and any related activities off the Gulf coast and the Straits of Florida. Castor filed the bill to ban oil drilling and leasing activities permanently. The current buffer 235 miles off of Tampa Bay is effective only through 2022.

“The Deepwater Horizon oil disaster has confirmed my worst fears about the potential ramifications of oil drilling off of Florida’s coast,” Castor continued. “We must act now to protect Florida’s economy and environment. The Deepwater Horizon disaster is having a devastating impact on Florida and other Gulf Coast states. Now that the oil is in the loop current, the Florida Keys, Florida Straits and our nation’s East coast are under threat.”

In 2006, 8.3 million acres of the Eastern Gulf were opened to additional offshore drilling under the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act. In exchange, an important buffer – up to 235 miles off the West coast of Florida – was adopted through 2022.

In addition to the buffer off the coast of Florida, Congress each year, starting in 1982 and continuing through 2008, had enacted outer continental shelf leasing moratorium for the United States. Castor is working to renew the moratorium that prevents drilling on the outer continental shelf.

The potential damage from an oil spill is very high if permitted in the shallow waters of the outer-continental shelf (OCS). The OCS off of Florida’s West coast is broad and gently sloping while the OCS off the East coast of Florida is narrow. Circulation off the shallow Gulf coast OCS is driven by tides, winds and buoyancy fluxes, and is also influenced by the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current. That’s why, Castor said, she is focusing on keeping the 235-mile buffer off the West coast of Florida.

“If drilling were allowed as close as 125 miles from the West coast, and we had an oil spill on the shallow shelf, we would be in serious danger of having the oil hit our shores,” Castor said.

“Reinstating the drilling moratorium through the appropriations bill would ensure that risky deepwater drilling doesn’t further jeopardize our priceless marine and coastal resources and the all important jobs that rely on them,” Castor said.

Castor has been an outspoken opponent of oil drilling near Florida for years. In 2008, she filed her first version of the Florida Coastal Protection Act to make the ban on oil drilling and leasing activities permanent. Last week, she exacted a pledge from BP’s president that he would work with her and other high-level Florida officials to address the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster on the state.