One of Florida’s leading economic analysts said the state could create an entire new Florida-based energy industry virtually overnight if it authorized off shore drilling of oil and natural gas.
In a recently released study by Fishland and Associates Inc., Hank Fishland, principal, said that off shore drilling and production could boost Florida’s economy by more than $ 7 billion a year, employ nearly 20,000 workers in direct energy-sector jobs and create more than 40,000 jobs in all.
According to Fishland, “Authorizing offshore drilling to access Florida’s oil and natural gas reserves is one of the few tools at policymakers’ disposal that could create an entire new industry almost literally overnight,” Fishkind said. “Moreover, it would have the dual benefit of not only creating critically needed jobs, but providing a unique new source of significant public revenues without raising taxes.
Florida which has an unemployment rate in excess of 10 percent and faces severe budgetary constraints, accessing its energy reserves is a dynamic way to stimulate the state’s private and public sectors simultaneously, Fishland noted. Moreover, there is the potential to reverse the economic downturn.
Employing the most conservative baseline estimates, Fishland projects that state revenues from energy severance taxes and royalties could amount to $2.3 billion annually. At a higher baseline, Fishkind estimates that Florida could collect as much as $12 billion a year in direct oil and gas revenues.
The Study by Fishkind & Associates can be accessed at: www.energyfla.com
Fishkind & Associates, Inc, formed by Dr. Henry Fishkind in 1987, is a 26-member firm which conducts large and complex economic cost benefit analyses from their offices in Orlando, Naples, and Port St. Lucie, Florida.
