A.G. Gancarski
Last week, Florida Politics published an article about the Jacksonville City Council Rules Committee reversing its previous support of a seismic testing moratorium. The catalyst for that reversal: Councilman Stephen Joost, who changed his position from a vote two weeks prior. We asked Joost via email last week about what went down. On Monday morning, his response arrived.
It boiled down to a reconsideration of the evidence.
“I guess what influenced my vote the most was testimony to the fact that there has been seismic testing in the Gulf of Mexico for over 30 years and the stock of fish has been fine with the exception of a small pod of whales. I know anglers all the way from Houston to St. Petersburg and all of them say the fishing in the Gulf has been good the last couple of years,” Joost wrote.
Environmental activists have a different read.
Neil Armingeon, after the Rules Committee reconsidering and rescinding its support of the moratorium, sent this reporter an email titled “Oil Industry Targeting Jacksonville,” in which he claimed that Kevin Doyle‘s handiwork before the Rules Committee paid off.
In a sense, that’s true. Doyle persuaded Bill Gulliford, via a letter, to get the measure reconsidered, and then made the business case in front of the committee.
With many area beach governments supporting such a moratorium, it is interesting to see how, at least in this case, the counter narrative prevailed.
