Imagine that Florida, instead of having white, beautiful beaches, had black and desolate shorelines from an oil spill! Florida must ban nearshore oil drilling permanently!

According to, Florida has 2,276 miles of shoreline, of which 663 miles are famous beaches. Nearshore oil drilling would harm the beauty and the environment along Florida shorelines. Besides, an oil spill would destroy the wildlife, and would devastate the tourism, fishing and water-sport industries. These industries are sources of major income to Florida. According to Visit Florida, tourism alone brought about 1 million jobs and $65.5 billion revenue to Florida in 2007. It generated $3.9 billion sales tax to Florida government that year. Florida cannot risk losing these vital industries and its most beautiful resource, its shorelines and beaches.

For the above reasons, Florida must prohibit nearshore oil drilling.