Senators who want to open new areas of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas production heralded what they called a historic compromise Wednesday. The agreement was supported by a key Florida senator, Republican Mel Martinez, who previously had vowed to block anything he perceived as a threat to the state’s multimillion-dollar beach-related tourism industry.
The deal, promoted by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and several Gulf Coast lawmakers, would open an 8 million-acre segment of the eastern Gulf of Mexico to production while barring drilling within 125 miles of the Florida coastline.