Will Desantis sign an oil drilling ban on the Apalachicola River?

TJ Sanders spent Thursday morning doing what he loves most: fishing at the Rolling Seagrass Meadows in Apalachicola Bay.

The charter captain has been calling his home a “forgotten coast” for half a decade, and it’s easy to see why. In just three hours, Sanders and two Kentucky clients were hooked on almost 12 redfish.

However, these days, Sanders is more concerned about the future of his living. When the state said last year that the Louisiana-based company intended to issue permission to search upstream oil from the bay, Sanders took it personally. If anything goes wrong with the drilling, it could derail his business.

In December, hundreds protested the drilling proposal outside the Florida Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Tallahassee. And in response to the protest, the Florida Legislature in April overwhelmingly approved a measure banning oil drilling along the Apalachicola River.

The bill landed on Wednesday at Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk and launched a 15-day clock for his decision. The governor can sign a bill, reject it, allow it to be done nothing, and become the law.

“Here we have hardworking people who need him to do the right thing for our environment as well as our way of life,” said Sanders, a voter at DeSantis. “I’ve heard him say he wants to leave better than he found Florida, and it’s a great opportunity for him to do just that.”

Earlier this week, Sanders urged DeSantis to sign a ban on drilling into law at a rally in Appalachicola, in front of hundreds of residents and coastal leaders.

On the same day, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection acted on an April recommendation from an administrative law judge and denied permission from a company that wanted to drill exploratory wells in an unedited portion of Calhoun County.

Last April, the agency submitted its formal intent to issue oil and gas drilling permits to Clearwater Land & Minerals FLA, LLC, which it wanted to drill into about 14,000 feet of Earth, according to its filing.

The nonprofit Appalachicola River Keeper has been legally challenged by the agency for potential ecological damage to the Apalachicola River Basin and surrounding industries that rely on healthy rivers for jobs such as fishing and shellfish farming.

Adrian Johnson, executive director of the Florida Shellfish Aquaculture Association, announced Monday night to an excited crowd of rallies that the state had denied clearwater permission. Cheers blew as she broke the news.

However, Johnson told the Tampa Bay Times that DeSantis’ signature would protect the river from future oil and gas exploration at several other sites along the river that could ultimately be allowed for drilling.

“It’s one victory, but it’s not the end of the story here,” Johnson said in an interview. “This bill is essentially intended to protect the area.”

The bill prohibits businesses from searching for oil and gas within 10 miles of the Appalachicola National Estuary Research Preparation, a roughly 234,000-acre area the government deems important to migratory species such as Black Skimmers, Royal Adjars and brown Pelicans.

The measure requires the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to better study how potential contamination from extraction will affect nearby coastlines, wildlife, and potential costs of repair when considering future oil permits.

Chevron and the American Petroleum Institute lobbyists are listed in the bill’s disclosure form. The governor’s office did not respond to several attempts by the Tampa Bay Times.

Federal marine scientists consider the mouth of the Appalachicola as one of the most productive and ecologically important systems in the Earth’s northern hemisphere. That’s why a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, locals, and even Franklin County Sheriff’s Officers support the ban on drilling.

The estuary is also an economic driver, according to a federal analysis. The estuary supports local fisheries, which concentrate up to $16 million a year.

State Rep. Alison Tanto, a Democrat from Tallahassee, co-hosted the No-Drill Bill because she felt the state’s first step to grant a drilling permit near the Apalachicola River was a “direct assault” against her members.

“We know the real impact of something devastating that happens when we have oil in water,” Tanto said, referring to the 2010 Deep Water Horizon disaster.

“In my view, it is an obligation to take this protection a step further,” she said.

Tanto pointed to recent public protests over the DeSantis administration’s proposal to develop nine state parks with golf courses and hotels. Lawmakers listened to the concerns of their constituents and unanimously approved the bill this year to further protect the park from development.

Desantis signed the bill on May 22nd, banning future developments supported by his own administration.

Now the same situation unfolds along Florida’s forgotten coast.

“I hope he does the same this time,” Tanto said.

The Tampa Bay Times launched its Environmental Hub in 2025, focusing on some of Florida’s most urgent and enduring challenges. You can contribute through the Journalism Fund by clicking here.