If people are scratching their heads about President Barack Obama’s announcement on Wednesday to pursue offshore oil exploration, it is understandable, since many Democrats, including the president, seemed largely skittish about the idea in the past.

In fact, when former President George W. Bush announced plans to explore oil and gas resources off the coast off the U.S., including the coast of Florida, there was strong opposition from Democrats. They also opposed Vice-Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin’s refrain to “Drill, baby, drill” off the Alaskan coast during the 2008 presidential elections.

But President Obama unveiled a seven year plan during which the Interior Department will conduct seismic surveys off the south and mid-Atlantic coasts of the U.S. to determine the quantity and location of potential oil and gas resources to support energy planning. This includes exploration 125 miles off Florida’s coast, and lifting a 20-year ban on drilling off the Virginia coastline, while banning drilling sites like southwest Alaska's Bristol Bay.

In a related statement, Secretary Ken Salazar said the oil exploration plan would preserve a 125-mile drilling buffer along Florida’s coast.

Making the announcement in a speech at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, Obama, anticipating criticism of his decision said, “We’ll protect areas vital to tourism, the environment and our national security… and we’ll be guided not by political ideology, but by scientific evidence.”

However, the announcement immediately provoked criticism from environmental specialists.

“Drilling off the coast of fully inhabited areas shouldn’t be tolerated,” said, Delroy Shaft, an environmental engineer in Orlando. “Furthermore, it’s senseless to swap one economic tool, tourism, for another, oil. What will happen to Florida as a tourist Mecca when its beaches are destroyed?”

Another environmental specialist, Lucas Bridge of Miami, posits that drilling for oil, “in a responsible, scientific manner, using modern technology, over a hundred miles from the coast presents little threat to Florida’s coastline.”

The proposed buffer zone along Florida’s coast isn’t new. In 2006 Congress passed an energy bill opening 8.3 million acres in the eastern Gulf south of Pensacola to oil drilling while creating a buffer zone up to 200 and at least 125 miles from shore along most of Florida’s coast.

U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) has been one of the strongest opponents of oil drilling off Florida’s coast. Gov. Charlie Crist, who originally was against drilling along the state’s coast later supported it when it was announced by the Bush administration. Florida’s interim Republican U.S. Senator George Lemieux also supports drilling.

Despite Nelson’s initial opposition, there are reports that his stance many have been altered by the fact that drilling will be miles off Florida’s coast.

He was reported as saying, “I believe this plan shows they (the Obama Administration) heeded that concern (of damaging Florida’s environment and economy by drilling too close to the coast).” Nelson also said the new plan should halt a Florida Legislature plan to drill three miles off the coast.

The president said despite the expected criticism from environmentalists in Florida and members of Congress, he wanted to emphasize that the announcement to widen drilling “is part of a broader strategy that will move us from an economy that runs on fossil fuels and foreign oil to one that relies more on homegrown fuels and clean energy.” He also said the decision to drill was not one he made lightly.