Hands join to protest offshore drilling

PINELLAS COUNTY - It's been a years-long battle already: to drill or not to drill.

Americans need new energy sources, but many Floridians don't want it to come from drilling off of our shores. Saturday, hundreds gathered in Pinellas County in a demonstration against offshore drilling.

Robin Grabowski grew up on the beaches of Pinellas County. On Saturday, she was walking the sands to try and make sure the shore stays as pristine as it was through her youth.

"I can't imagine taking a picture of the sunset with a rig in it three to ten miles out," Grabowski said. "It just breaks my heart."

She and hundreds of others lined the Pinellas shoreline, most dressed in black, evoking the image of what the coast could like like if drilling in Pinellas waters was allowed and went awry.

Congressman Bill Young, who was also in attendance, remains opposed to offshore drilling.

"We do not want to walk on our beaches and end up with tar balls all over our feet," he said.

Legislation to allow drilling off the coast passed the House of Representatives last year but was blocked by the State Senate. Opponents of the drilling know the fight is ongoing.

"There's no doubt that we need energy, there's no doubt that we depend a lot on oil and we depend a lot on foreign sources of oil, which we've got to change," the congressman said.

Supporters say drilling could bring the jobs and money Florida so desperately needs, but opponents say it could wreck what lures people to the state in the first place.

"People come to Florida for one reason," said State Senator Dennis Jones. "More people come to Florida for beaches than go to Disney World. That's a true fact. They come here for sun, sand, and water."

Grabowski and hundreds of others joined hands in the sand to preserve, both economically and environmentally, the place they call home; hoping the only black they'll see along the beaches are the shirts on their backs.

"I would never live anywhere else," Grabowski said.

Similar demonstrations took place all across Florida Saturday on more than 80 different beaches, an effort to convince legislators and Governor Charlie Crist to drop the idea of offshore drilling.