{"id":151,"date":"2010-02-11T20:26:31","date_gmt":"2010-02-11T20:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/?p=151"},"modified":"2010-02-11T20:26:31","modified_gmt":"2010-02-11T20:26:31","slug":"public-news-service-a-line-in-the-florida-sand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/2010\/02\/11\/public-news-service-a-line-in-the-florida-sand\/","title":{"rendered":"Public News Service: A Line in the Florida Sand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Public News Service-FL <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"mailto:nc@publicnewsservice.org\">nc@publicnewsservice.org<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>February 10, 2010<\/p>\n<p>A Line in the Florida Sand<\/p>\n<p>JACKSONVILLE, Fla. &#8211; On Saturday, thousands of Floridians will literally draw a line in the sand to fight near-shore oil and gas drilling. The &#8220;Hands Across the Sand&#8221; protest is aimed at putting the brakes on a proposal many feel will damage the environment and jeopardize Florida&#8217;s beach-dependent tourism industry.<\/p>\n<p>Organizer Dave Rauschkolb says people will be holding hands, along beaches from Pensacola to Key West and Miami to Jacksonville, to make a point about Florida&#8217;s ecology and economy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every Chamber of Commerce from Pensacola to Panama City Beach has passed resolutions against oil drilling.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The group Defenders of Wildlife predicts that a bill to allow drilling off the Florida coastline will be the defining issue of the legislative session that begins in March; a similar measure failed last year when the state Senate refused to consider it.<\/p>\n<p>Supporters of drilling say it would help ease the nation&#8217;s dependence on foreign oil and create jobs, but Shannon Miller with Florida&#8217;s Defenders of Wildlife chapter, warns the potential damage is not worth the gamble.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It will leave us with damaged coastal and marine habitats and lead us away from a healthy, sustainable and renewable energy future.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Rauschkolb adds Florida&#8217;s beaches are the key to the state&#8217;s economic health, and doing anything that might endanger them is a foolish risk.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Florida&#8217;s legacy is clean water, clean beaches, sunshine, lots of fun &#8211; and why would we want to risk that coastal legacy?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Participants in Hands Across the Sand will gather at their local beaches at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 13. For more information about the protest, see <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.handsacrossthesand.org\">www.handsacrossthesand.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Special thanks to Richard Charter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Public News Service-FL nc@publicnewsservice.org] February 10, 2010 A Line in the Florida Sand JACKSONVILLE, Fla. &#8211; On Saturday, thousands of Floridians will literally draw a line in the sand to fight near-shore oil and gas drilling. The &#8220;Hands Across the Sand&#8221; protest is aimed at putting the brakes on a proposal many feel will damage &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/2010\/02\/11\/public-news-service-a-line-in-the-florida-sand\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Public News Service: A Line in the Florida Sand<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions\/152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}