Commissioner Nikki Fried to State, Federal Agencies: Reject Oil Drilling Permit, Stop All Oil Drilling in Florida

Tallahassee, Fla. – Yesterday, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried wrote to leaders of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Park Service (NPS) urging rejection of Trend Exploration’s oil exploration permit application. The North Fort Myers-based company is seeking to drill a 12,000-foot directional well within the Big Cypress Watershed in Collier County, raising concerns from farmworkers, environmental stakeholders, and government agencies.

Commissioner Fried’s letter to FDEP Interim Secretary Shawn Hamilton and NPS Deputy Director Shawn Benge underscored the threat this drilling poses to the region’s aquifers, water supplies, endangered species, and agriculture workers. In the letter, Commissioner Fried calls on Governor Ron DeSantis to issue an executive order halting all oil drilling activities within the State of Florida, citing the environmental harm of fossil fuel exploration.

Background: Commissioner Fried has been a leading advocate for protecting Florida’s waters, wetlands, and environment. Earlier this year, her agency denied a state permit for the use of aldicarb, one of the world’s most toxic insecticides, and she opposed a Texas-based company’s oil drilling permit in the Big Cypress National Preserve. In August, Fried launched a new Clean Water Initiative, taking landmark action to improve agricultural water use in Florida.

Last November, Commissioner Fried submitted testimony to the EPA opposing the yielding of wetlands permitting to the State of Florida, after expressing opposition last October. In December, she wrote to then-incoming EPA Administrator Michael Regan asking him to reconsider the prior Administration’s decision. In February, Commissioner Fried released a state-federal partnership plan in which she asks the Biden Administration to reevaluate the EPA decision. Fried, whose opposition was lauded by Sierra Club Florida, joined thousands of public comments opposing the EPA’s surrendering wetlands permitting authority. Fried has previously opposed oil drilling, including offshore and in the Everglades and Apalachicola basin.

The letter may be downloaded here [ 1.2 MB ] or viewed here on Twitter, and reads as follows:

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The Honorable Shawn Hamilton                                            The Honorable Shawn Benge
Interim Secretary                                                                    Deputy Director, Exercising the Delegated
Florida Department of Environmental Protection                  Authority of the Director
3900 Commonwealth Boulevard                                            National Park Service
Mail Stop 49                                                                           1849 C Street, NW
Tallahassee, FL 32399                                                            Washington, DC 20240

November 2, 2021

Interim Secretary Hamilton and Deputy Director Benge,

I write today regarding proposed oil exploration throughout Florida, and particularly in the Florida Everglades region. As you know, Florida is one of the nation’s most unique ecological treasures, with the Everglades a fragile ecosystem like nowhere else on Earth. Over 120 animal species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, alongside more than 21 million Floridians, rely on clean water and a healthy environment to thrive.

For decades, it has been clear that oil drilling, fossil fuel exploration, hydraulic fracturing, and related processes are highly detrimental to their surrounding environments. These activities are even more harmful when they threaten our aquifers that are critical to Florida’s water supply. This appears to be the case in Trend Exploration’s current permit application, submitted to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), to undertake oil exploration within the Big Cypress Watershed in Collier County.

Numerous government agencies and environmental stakeholders have warned that allowing a directional well to be drilled in this area may harm regional drinking water supplies, endangered species, local residents, and the agricultural community. Both the South Florida Water Management District and the Immokalee Water and Sewer District have raised serious concerns about this permit application, including potential contamination of reservoirs and aquifers, inadequate protection of water supplies, and massive consumption and latent depletion of water sources.

Farmworker advocates such as the Coalition of Immokalee Workers have expressed major concern about impacts to the water supply on which more than 27,000 agricultural workers rely, many of whom are low-wage immigrants with little recourse. As the regulator of Florida’s $149 billion agriculture industry, and home to the Office of Agricultural Water Policy, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services takes these concerns very seriously.

I therefore request that FDEP deny this permit application, and request that the National Park Service exercise its broad authority to reject this oil exploration activity in the Big Cypress Watershed. Further, I encourage the Governor to issue an executive order halting all oil drilling and related activities anywhere within the boundaries of the State of Florida, just as I have called on the federal government to ban all drilling off Florida’s coasts.

Earlier this year, I called for the denial of Texas-based Burnett Oil Company’s exploration drilling permit application, as did the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and other concerned stakeholders. As I said then, we cannot afford giveaways of our pristine environment to the fossil fuel industry. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Nicole Fried


Florida Commissioner of Agriculture

cc:          The Honorable Ron DeSantis
               Governor of Florida 

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