Florida oil drilling: It's only the biggest decision in the state's history

Opening Florida's waters to oil drilling is one of the biggest decisions we'll ever make.

Maybe you're all for it. A lot of people are these days. Flirting with $4-a-gallon gasoline as we did a while back tends to make an impression.

Now, I don't want you to think I have a hidden bias. Let me put it right out there:

My bias is that this is the stupidest thing we will ever do. My bias is that this is the end of Florida as we know it.

It isn't going to bring down prices. It isn't going to make us "energy independent."

Money? They say it will bring Florida money, $2 billion a year eventually. Sounds great. I look forward to seeing that promise in the contract.

They say they are smarter and safer these days. No doubt. I am less worried about Exxon Valdez disasters than about day-in, day-out effects.

Ask folks who've lived or vacationed on beaches in oil territory. Ask about having to keep a bucket of cleanser by the back door.

That's my bias.

But maybe I'm wrong. I'm wrong all the time, you know. Maybe birds will sing, fish will frolic, the sand will get whiter and Florida will get rich.

So, my point is not, "Everybody has to agree!"

Nope. Here is the point:

Can we at least think first?

Shouldn't there be some heft, some rigor to this decision, instead of an unstudied, on-the-fly, superficial, seat-of-the-pants, political vote?

There are hints that it could happen in a matter of weeks, when our cheerful governor calls the Legislature into special session in October or November for matters such as his new Indian gambling deal.

Our state House already tried once to ram this through this spring. The conservatism of the Senate stopped it.

This is the worst of our Legislature in recent years — the snap decision. Look how it's "fixed" property taxes, hurricane insurance, everything else it's touched.

For the most important decision in Florida's history, shouldn't we have been looking at this already? Shouldn't the governor have long ago named the Biggest Big-Shot Task Force Ever Assembled?

What do the geologists say? What do the biologists say? What do the economists say? What do the beach communities say? What does Disney say? What does NASA say? What does Key West say? Yes, what does the industry say? Is anyone truly objective?

This decision is so big that I would even support a full-scale junket for all 160 members of the Legislature. Let the oil industry give 'em the full PR treatment — provided that it was mandatory that every member then take a beach-by-beach, bucket-by-bucket tour arranged by the opposition.

But no. The ruling principle in Tallahassee in modern years has been a sneering, know-nothing, anti-intellectualism. Ideology trumps facts, and money trumps even ideology. Hence a mysterious group called "Florida Energy Associates" has hired lobbyists, PR experts, pollsters and consultants to win this vote.

It touts its own polls claiming that most Floridians support drilling "if it doesn't harm the environment." In the same way, I suppose, most of us would support cigarettes that don't make people sick, pies than don't make us fat and texting-while-driving that doesn't cause wrecks.

This is how we will govern?

Is this all the maturity that the governor and Legislature can bring to their stewardship of Florida? Can they possibly really believe that this is the right way to make this decision?