Jeb Bush opposes Gulf oil pipeline
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday he will oppose a proposed oil pipeline from Mississippi to Tampa, citing a potential negative impact on the existing oil barge industry.
'I was fairly interested in the idea, but then I realized that in order for them to finance their pipeline, they would have had to take significant amounts of business away from barge traffic,” Bush said, according to an Associated Press report from Tallahassee, the state capital.
'In essence, we would be supplanting one source of supply, which actually has quite a bit of flexibility, with another source of supply that’s dependent upon the Gulf Coast refineries, and it didn’t meet the growing needs of our state,' Bush added.
Port of Tampa director Richard Wainio and Tampa port companies have also raised concerns about how the pipeline would affect the port.
The pipeline was proposed last fall by Alpharetta, Ga.-based Colonial Pipeline. A company spokesman said Tuesday Colonial has not decided whether it will file a formal application for the project.