A.G. Gancarski
In Jacksonville City Council’s Rules Committee on Monday, John Crescimbeni’s resolution [2015-350] against seismic testing off of Jacksonville’s coast was voted down by a 4-3 margin, just two weeks after it passed in this same body. The deciding vote last time, Stephen Joost, was for it before he was against it.
No votes were Robin Lumb, Joost, Matt Schellenberg and Don Redman, Yes votes were Lori Boyer, Bill Gulliford and Warren Jones.
Given that resolutions against seismic testing have been popular measures in recent months in Northeast Florida, this is a mild surprise. In committees two weeks ago, council members said that they did not know enough about seismic testing. In Council last week, Gulliford referred the bill back to Rules. Then, as if on cue, an industry expert, in the form of Kevin Doyle (recently of the Anna Brosche Jacksonville City Council campaign) showed to educate them.
Doyle, the Florida Executive Director for Consumer Energy Alliance, argued that with “the appropriate mitigation measures, seismic surveys can be undertaken with little or no impact to marine life. Seismic surveying is conducted in the Gulf of Mexico on a regular basis with no issues reported.”
Notable is that three of the four no votes were conservative Republicans by any measure; Joost also is a Republican, but he memorably endorsed Alvin Brown for mayor a couple of months back. Brown had introduced an anti-seismic testing resolution during his late campaign pivot to the left, but seemed to lose his enthusiasm for such around May 19.
Joost had voted for the resolution two weeks before, as mentioned.
We reached out to Joost on Monday evening; when we get his reply, we will update this post with it.
Is Doyle’s case for seismic testing one that will resonate elsewhere? Time will tell. But this was an effective dry run.
In other Rules Committee news, the body approved 2015-384, a resolution urging HUD to defund the Section 8 allotment for crime-plagued Eureka Gardens 6-0.
Rules also approved, on an emergency basis, a resolution to authorize $541,125 for summer camps for at-risk youth; the idea is to stem the tide of gang violence.
