Opponents of coastal oil drilling join hands in solidarity

PICS AT LINK

TAMPA --

Last year's BP oil spill has faded from the headlines, but that doesn't mean Nina Perino is ready to forgive and forget.

"It's going to be years down the road for those animals to recover," Perino, who lives in Palm Harbor, said as she anchored one end of a human chain on the Tampa Bay beach just west of the Gandy Boulevard bridge.

About two dozen people from Hillsborough and Pinellas counties joined Perino on the beach at noon, part of a international "Hands Across the Sand" protest of offshore oil drilling. More than 200 people, including former Gov. Charlie Crist, held a similar protest on St. Pete Beach. In all, protestors joined hands in seven locations in Pinellas County.

"Hands Across the Sand" began last summer in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil well spill that pumped millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The oil fouled wetlands in Louisiana and beaches in Alabama. It also washed ashore on a few Panhandle beaches – a small part of Florida's coastline, but enough to create a statewide economic mess.

http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2011/jun/25/2/opponents-of-coastal-oil-drilling-join-hands-in-so-ar-239938/#comments

MY COMMENTS POSTED AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS STORY:

Every single one of our representatives have taken money from BIG OIL to fund their campaigns. This goes back decades and it makes no difference who is president and what political party is in power. Check it out on opensecretsdotorg.

Oil is a dinosaur. Coal is not clean, ever! People die from it! And we know all about nuke energy...not clean, green or safe...Frack-ing for Natural Gas in spite of the TV commercial hype is poisoning our people, our water and other resources and is ecocide and terracide.

Hands Across the Sand was created to bring awareness to many that there are alternatives available. Money just needs to be allocated to them as it is misappropriated now. If Germany can do it right with SOLAR and they have much less sunny days than what we have, then we can do it too.

Anita Stewart
Hillsborough County Soil and Water Conservation Board, Seat 5