During GOP Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s visit to Southwest Florida Monday, she promised states could make their own decisions about controversial off-shore oil drilling proposals. But she said the United States needs to achieve energy independence through drilling, alternative energy sources and other means.

Though a quarter-century moratorium on oil and natural gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts has been lifted, the waters off the western beaches of Florida remain off limits to energy development, for now. WGCU’s Amy Tardif has more.