BY LUCY MORGAN AND MARY ELLEN KLAS HERALD/TIMES TALLAHASSEE BUREAU

TALLAHASSEE – Dangling the promise of millions for the state’s dwindling budget, a group of mostly unidentified oil and gas companies are bankrolling a last-minute fight to bring offshore drilling to Florida’s coastline.

Florida Energy Associates, a corporation formed in December by Daytona Beach lawyer Doug Daniels, has hired at least 20 of the state’s most prominent lobbyists to push bills through the legislature in the final week of session. Most of the lobbyists were hired in the last 10 days but the proposal has been planned for months.

The measure, slated for votes in the House and Senate this week, would give the governor and Cabinet authority to approve oil and gas exploration 3 to 10 miles off the Florida coast.

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Many of the state’s editorial writers and columnists have expressed despair at the possibility the Legislature will OK drilling for oil a short distance from Florida’s shorelines, including Derek Dunn-Rankin of the Charlotte Sun.

Here is what he said:

It does seem ironic that the Florida Legislature should propose drilling for oil 3 miles off our beaches while the nation is celebrating Earth Day. If there is a prize for lobbyists, the equivalent of a moviemaker’s Oscar, it should go to the band of professional persuaders who managed to craft the bill and sneak it past the normal hearing and debate process at a time when both the House and Senate are tied in knots over unprecedented budget challenges. Lobbyists and legislators moved in secrecy and managed to keep both reporters and members of the Legislature itself ignorant of their grand plan. A radical departure, the bill passed out of committee 12 hours after first being made public. It was disappointing that local Rep. Paige Kreegel was one of the disciplined majority that voted the bill out before organized opposition could coalesce.

Liberal or conservative, the reaction of the state’s editorial pages were articulately angry, shocked and indignant.

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