Governor Charlie Crist, Senate President Jeff Atwater, House Speaker Larry Cretul:
We know you're hearing from a lot of highly paid lobbyists hired by the oil and gas industry urging you to approve new drilling three to ten miles off Florida's coast. They are making all sorts of promises about new jobs and state revenue and giving all sorts of assurances about how safe and clean the new drilling would be. But much of the information they have offered has been shown to be flawed or false. And our state's natural resources are too precious to be traded in a back room deal.
Before you agree to endanger our $60 billion tourism industry, our unique environment, and the very character of our state, you need to listen to Floridians, not industry lobbyists.
An issue this important deserves to be decided by the people of Florida. Instead of passing legislation offered by the industry and its supporters, put the issue on the ballot as a constitutional referendum.
The thousands of Floridians whose names appear below urge you to let the people to decide the fate of our natural resources. Don't sell our state to the highest bidder.