Cuba Oil Probe Spurs Calls for U.S. Drilling

The Washington Times ^ | July 26, 2006 | Patrice Hill

[kellynla]

Congressional proponents of oil and gas drilling are pointing to Cuba's exploration off the coast of Florida -- with help from China -- as a prime reason to open up U.S. drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

But Florida legislators continue to resist, and some of them are trying to stop Cuba's activities by pushing to rescind a 1977 treaty dividing the Straits of Florida halfway between the two countries.

The Bush administration, with an eye toward the pivotal role Florida has played in presidential politics and out of solidarity with President Bush's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, has largely sided with Florida in the dispute. It supports only very limited drilling off the coast of Florida, as would be permitted under a bill pending in the Senate.

"American politics today -- it is the no-drill zone," said Sen. Larry E. Craig, Idaho Republican. "We sit here watching China exploit a valuable resource within eyesight of the U.S. coast," he said, noting that one 2005 U.S. Geological Survey estimated the North Cuba Basin may contain as much oil as the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve in Alaska.

"I am certain the American public would be shocked, as this country is trying to reduce our dependency on Middle East oil, that countries like China are realizing this energy resource," Mr. Craig said.

"This is a pocketbook issue, not a political issue. Whole regions of the Gulf are not available for drilling today," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican, who has sought to find ways to expand exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.

[kellynla]

"What is happening? Fidel Castro in Cuba is partnering with China and is moving forward. ... He can drill, but we cannot. He can take the money and fund his adventures around South and Central America. ... Is that what people would like to see?" The result has been growing dependence on oil imports, which now provide more than half the fuel Americans use, although legislators routinely denounce the nation's reliance on "foreign oil" when they renew the ban on domestic drilling.

Here we are thirty years later and more dependent than we ever were.

[capt. norm]

This is where too many years of Castro-lovers like Jimmah Carter has gotten us.

[Kitten Festival]

Zackly. I've had about enough of the beard. And anyone who thinks he's gonna protect florida's fragile ecosystem is in for a surprise. He doesn't even protect human life, he's not gonna care if a lot of coral beds and sea life get trashed by his oil ventures. Check out the pollution situation in Cuba already. Castro's drilling will enable the sea around Florida where he's drilling to look just like that, with that telltale diesel-stink Soviet look.

[kerryusama04]

Considering how much oil is used to get tourists to Florida, perhaps we ought to quit going until they open the spigots.

[bybybill]

But oil is used to make gasoline and gasoline burns and makes global warming which is going to kill us all, especially women, children and minorities,plus all the bears in the National Parks.

[Sam Cree]

"The Bush administration, with an eye toward the pivotal role Florida has played in presidential politics and out of solidarity with President Bush's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, has largely sided with Florida in the dispute. It supports only very limited drilling off the coast of Florida, as would be permitted under a bill pending in the Senate."

Sometimes it just doesn't seem worth it.

[plain talk]

The greater problem here IMO is the fact that congressmen on our side of this issue are unable to humiliate these supporters of the ban and carry the day. Here you have two communist countries sucking the oil out on their side of the line (oil knows no country boundaries) and with $3 gas they are not made to pay a humiliating price for this farce. Incredible. We have to elect people who can persuade and reach the masses. Reagan would have had a field day with this one.

[xrp]

hahahahaha, DIE EVERYONE DIE!

[Fred Hayek]

However if one of Castro Inc's rigs blows a gasket and ruins the coral beds and places oil slicks, you know what the MSM analysis will be ------


IT'S BUSH'S FAULT!

[zarf]

Gee, all it takes is for the Commies to take the initiaitve to do something and we go into a mindless panic. Hilarious.

This country suffers from bi-polar disorder.

[Gondring]

Ping

[pawdoggie]

Castro's drilling will enable the sea around Florida where he's drilling to look just like that, with that telltale diesel-stink Soviet look.

Good point. I wonder what the folks in the "Sunshine State" are going to think when the Cubans and Chinese (demonstrating their usual level of concern for the environment) send a torrent of tar balls toward Florida's beaches.

[xzins]

Politicians are so stupid they make me spit.

We'd rather sit here and argue ignorant little points and let someone else take something that has been ours for the taking for years.

The insanity of Cuba and China drilling for oil in areas we could have had years ago is beyond words.

[norraad]

We never needed drop one from the middle east.

The Gulf, our Gulf, is an infinite supply & easy to safely tap.

[Arizona Carolyn]

What in the world are these people thinking?

Oh, that's right, they aren't thinking, that is why Crazy Hugo Chavez is on his way to buy lots of weapons from Putin with his oil money and why Iran can saber rattle -- oil money and Putin tells us to stuff it -- Oil money... and yet, the people we elect continue to say nay to drilling on our own shores.

[norraad]

The only way it makes sense is oil is "allowed" out of the ground when it pays for trouble(arms).

[BlazingArizona]

But Florida legislators continue to resist, and some of them are trying to stop Cuba's activities by pushing to rescind a 1977 treaty dividing the Straits of Florida halfway between the two countries.

The arrogance of pissant legislators is unbounded. They have no power to rewrite accepted worldwide treaty law. In general, countries claim a 200 nm territorial limit outward from their shorelines; where two nations are close enough that these limits would overlap (a 'strait'), the area is divided equally between the two countries. At the place where Cuba and the US are 90 miles apart, each gets 45 miles of territorial water. If Florida thinks it can claim some mythical right to extra territorial water, someone's brain is full of hanging chad.

If we want to be serious about energy independence, we need to get into the game and start drilling our half of the strait.

[Luigi Vasellini]

157 offshore rigs were in the direct path of Katrina and not one spill.

[backhoe]

I have covered, ( Or, as Seamole calls it...-backhoe's pseudoblog--...-more- ) pseudo-blogged, this issue for years-- we all need to get serious about our dependency on foreign sources of energy, and use our own resources.

Our consumer-based economy is driven by and dependent upon readily-available, reliable energy-- choke that off, and we'll all be back to using one rotary dial phone in the dining room, watching one TV in the living room, and driving one car per family-- probably a Hudson Hornet or a Nash Metropolitan...

We need to

1) end the nonsensical ban on offshore drilling off California and Florida--read & weep:
Castro Plans to Drill 45 Miles from US Shores, But We Can't

2) build a lot of next-generation nuclear power plants, not just for electricity, but for any process requiring heat, power, or steam.
And if we replaced our existing nuclear plants with this one

...there would be significant benefits.

3) end Jimmy Carter's idiotic ban on recycling nuclear waste, and reprocess the stuff rather than fighting over where to bury it. Europe has done this for decades.-- what to do with spent nuclear fuel? Answer here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1468321/posts?page=50#50 hattip:  Mike (former Navy Nuclear Engineer)

4) use the 300-500 years worth of coal we have on our own land, using the new clean-coal technology.
-Clean Coal Centre--

5) and finally, there's nothing wrong with conservation, we should all practice it- but you can't conserve your way out of a shortage. You have to produce more. Nor is there anything wrong with "alternative" energy sources- except they don't supply the vast ( not to mention readily-available ) amounts of power we need at a price competitive to more conventional sources.

Then again, there is this to ponder:
Energy From the Gulf Stream
http://www.energy.gatech.edu/presentations/mhoover.pdf

Tidal energy farm proposed for Vineyard Sound

We do need to get serious about this before we get strangled by a bunch of petty thieves and dictators who don't like us much.

My tongue-in-cheek collection of energy-related links:

Sticker Shock-$3 a gallon gas? Click the picture:

And kindly note, and note well-- the first reply to this post ( when gas was $1.45 a gallon ) was derisive... so, who's laughing now?

Vest-Pocket Summary:

1- drill for gas & oil like crazy- onshore, offshore, and in Alaska
2- go nuclear for power
3- convert stationary plants to clean coal technology or Next-Gen Nuclear
4- slash taxes and regulations like crazy

[norraad]

You know, I just thought of a good place to bury nuke waste.