Posted on 06/06/2006 1:22:23 PM PDT by Ben Mugged
U.S. lawmakers are growing increasingly concerned as Cuba grants licensing agreements to energy-hungry economies such as China and India to allow drilling in its waters off the coast of Florida.
Members from both parties have proposed separate legislation that would either allow U.S. oil companies to compete with foreign entities to drill in Cuban coastal waters or block Havana from pursuing any oil production exploration in order to prevent ecological damage that could disrupt Florida`s $50 billion tourism industry.
Amid a growing call to reduce U.S. foreign dependence on oil, the predicament facing Congress is whether or not to allow U.S. companies to bypass a 45-year-old trade embargo in order to pursue oil excavation in Cuban waters or tap into offshore U.S. oil resources in the Florida Straits and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
U.S. lawmakers who support circumventing the embargo argue that at a time of growing demand and rising oil prices, domestic oil companies must be allowed to compete against countries like China or India, which have driven crude prices to above $70 a barrel. Otherwise, they say, the United States will be handing over crucial energy resources only 50 miles off the U.S. coastline to competing energy markets.
'Red China should not be left to drill for oil within spitting distance of our shores without competition from U.S. industries,' Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, said earlier this year. 'Not only is this a supply and energy security issue for us, it is an environmental issue. We can`t let China conspire to lock up a potentially lucrative oil supply.'
(Excerpt) Read more at news.monstersandcritics.com ...
This is how the article should be titled.
I always find it interesting that Florida and California can forbid drilling outside their borders in Federal Waters but Alaska cannot allow drilling inside their borders on Federal Land.
Why don't these timid pansy-assed jerks get off their lazy asses and let industry do what is best for the country. I'm fed up with the ethanol worshippers and environmental dipsticks.
Only the USA will agonize over applying common sense and responsible judgement. We should be drilling offshore California, ANWR, off the coast of Florida, and in the Gulf of Mexico. It is possible to be environmenally responsible and drill for oil. But wait, we have too many socialist revolutionaries in our Congress!
And how does the gazillion platforms outside of New Orleans hamper tourism and the shrimp industry there?
Too many riggers taken up all the barstools?
Another example of our stupidity, overdoing forgiveness of the enemy after we win a war.
We beat Cuba how many times?
And then, just like Mexico, we give them back their country, and allow the most brutal and corrupt thug among them to take control.
We should have simply made Cuba a U.S. territory a long time ago.
Might not be too late if we just sent all the Cubans in the U.S. back at the same time?
I say we let them drill it's their land anyway.
I say we let them drill it's their land anyway.
"Critics contend, however, that extracting oil and gas resources from Cuban waters will do little to alleviate the growing energy demand..."
Correct they are. It won't be enough to change the balance. That's why we need ANWR, Colorado, and parts of the CA coast to start drilling, and build some refineries, too. We also need to reexamine nuclear and shale, and build the biggest wind farm ever known in Teddy K's playpen off Hyannis.
The libs, for all their antimilitarism, are very well aquainted with the military principle of cutting off an enemy's fuel supplies to render him helpless. That is why so many of their efforts are focused on shutting down any energy form that's actually feasible. They'll crow about driving on old french fries until the day it actually becomes practical; then they'll find a problem.
(Yes, I know it is possible to pour old vegetable oil into an unmodified vehicle and run it; but how many gallons of used french fry juice does a city of 100,000 generate in a month? A damn sight less than drilling between FL and Cuba will.)
Its an outrage.
If it weren't for the fact that Cuban Americans in Florida vote over 80% Republican, President Al Gore would be in his second term right now.
All the electronics made by Israel would be compatible with our own. They would fit right into the electronic battle space.
Let's just pull out of the treaty and drill where we wish.
---- We are willing to outsource everything, why not DoD???
I think that was done somewhere during Clinton's admin...remember the missing hard drives at Sandia??
Considering Florida is a peninsula, it is impossible to drive the most direct routes to points of interest in Florida from many parts of the US. Lots of tourists arrive by air. They have quite a bit to lose if prices go higher.
I thought they found those hard drives at Sandia.
I thought they found those hard drives at Sandia.
Perhaps one of you more irrudite Freepers can enlighten a poor old vet as to just "how" states like California and Florida can prohibit drilling off their coasts, when, States' jurisdictional boundaries are limited to THREE MILES?
Furthermore, though President Reagan (in 1988) extended US territorial boundaries to 12 miles, how is it possible for our Feebs (or anyone else) to PROHIBIT drilling beyond those limits?
If China, Cuba or Bali, wants to drill off from Cuba, off the shores of Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico, HOW, can we legally keep them from doing so?
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