Posted on 09/29/2010 6:54:28 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
Five months after the BP oil spill, a federal moratorium still prohibits new deepwater drilling in the American waters of the Gulf of Mexico. And under longstanding federal law, drilling is also banned near the coast of Florida.
Yet next year, a Spanish company will begin drilling new wells 50 miles from the Florida Keys — in Cuba’s sovereign waters.
Cuba currently produces little oil. But oil experts say the country might have reserves along its north coast as plentiful as that of the international oil middleweights, Ecuador and Colombia — enough to bolster its faltering economy and cut its dependence on Venezuela for its energy needs.
The advent of drilling in Cuban waters poses risks both to the island nation and the United States.
Ocean scientists warn that a well blowout similar to the BP disaster could send oil spewing onto Cuban beaches and then the Florida Keys in as little as three days. If the oil reached the Gulf Stream, a powerful ocean current that passes through the region, oil could flow up the coast to Miami and beyond.
The nascent oil industry in Cuba is far less prepared to handle a major spill than even the American industry was at the time of the BP spill. Cuba has neither the submarine robots needed to fix deepwater rig equipment nor the platforms available to begin drilling relief wells on short notice.
And marshaling help from American oil companies to fight a Cuban spill would be greatly complicated by the trade embargo on Cuba imposed by the United States government 48 years ago, according to industry officials. Under that embargo, American companies face severe restrictions on the business they can conduct with Cuba.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I’m more concerned that they will drill through the Lost City of Atlantis and unleash the Death Ray
From the country where most of the toilets are broken. We really want them handling gushing oil 90 miles away from our shores.
If I was an offshore consortium, I'd buy serious TV time, spread the message I was trying to hire and keep gas prices low, and drilling begins Monday in 4000ft. of water off Key Largo. Be there.
And offer profit sharing to anyone with a boat who wants to be floating security for me and my deep drilling bro's.
It's about destroying jobs.
Yep! They want to cripple ALL businesses. I hope they get a huge rebuke in November.
Well, at least SOMEONE will get some good from our oil.
We need to drink Cuba’s milkshake.
Congress granted the Secretary of Interior the authority to manage the OCS and since the prez hires the Secretary, it is his authority.
Everybody knows that.
That's BS.
Just like how the Fed "may" print non-Constitutional toilet paper coupons and call them "legal tender".
Where does the President receive the power to halt commercial enterprise, especially without Congressional approval?
Of course, anonymously posting a fantasy costing hundreds of millions of dollars to implement is a bit different than actually running an oil company. (I am not an offshore consortium, but I play one on FR) ;-]
One of the reasons the Left has gotten away with it for so long is that corporatism pays and businesses make business decisions - what is to be gained and what is to be lost.
It’s going to take us, individuals, pointing out the the emperor is naked. Nobody else will do it.
Nope. Big oil benefits from the “moratorium”. Big oil and our friends the Saudis.
Maybe they'll be able to create jobs fixing the toilets and a hundred other improvements that could be done. Let foreign companies with expertise run the oil fields.
If it would only shame our government to act with economic rationality it would even be beneficial to us.
I’m sure if Comrade Obama asks Cuba real nice .....
Not ninety miles, only fifty miles from the keys according to the article.
Billions of dollars have come into Cuba from Spain Mexico China Japan Canada etc. Yet for decades there has been no toilet paper pens light bulbs forks spoons shoes...for decades most Cubans have gone to bed hungry. This is not the jungle - it was a real country with seven cities and 20 daily newspapers. The issue has never been lack of money. The destruction of the infrastructure and vast constant shortages of essential goods is inherent in the communist system. Giving them money via business or investments won’t change anything. If you knew how little contact they had with reality you would be very scared at the idea of them getting near undersea drilling equipment.
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