As Republicans rallied support for President Bush's top energy priority, increased oil exploration in Alaska, Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Florida) offered his vote for a price: an assurance that Florida's Gulf Coast would remain safe from oil and gas exploration for at least seven more years.

Minutes after the 51-49 vote on Wednesday, Martinez announced that the Bush administration had agreed to respect the current moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida's coast until 2012.

Opponents had warned that opening the Arctic refuge to oil rigs would provide the impetus for drilling in other ecologically sensitive areas, including the eastern Gulf of Mexico off Florida. Martinez said he could not have supported drilling in Alaska without the administration's assurances to leave the Gulf alone. Although Martinez characterized his deal as an "extension" of the moratorium, the current patchwork of protections against drilling for oil and natural gas off Florida's West Coast already extends to 2012, largely under a deal struck by President Bush and his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. That leaves open the question of what plans the administration might develop for drilling in protected areas beyond the 100-mile limit. In 2001, Senator Bill Nelson (D-Florida) helped strike a deal that made a large chunk of the Gulf, known as Tract 181, off-limits to oil and gas drilling. But its eastern edge is 213 miles from Tampa Bay.

"It's not spelled out clearly," said Mark Ferrullo, director of the Florida Public Interest Research Group, which has advocated against Gulf drilling. "Any new leasing in the eastern Gulf of Mexico is an encroachment on Florida's beaches. They keep pushing a little more east, a little more east, and that's a big concern for us." Nelson, who voted against the Arctic drilling measure Wednesday, praised Martinez for securing the Gulf protections. But Nelson spokesman Dan McLaughlin said, "we remain highly skeptical of the administration, and, in particular, its plans for Tract 181 (off Tampa).”

FS