"Cuba, China Drilling for Oil 50 Miles from Florida Shores"

fleinn · #1 06-21-2008, 01:36 PM

"Cuba, China Drilling for Oil 50 Miles from Florida Shores"

Ok, Stevez - take two:

"Cuba, China Drilling for Oil 50 Miles from Florida Shores"
Cuba, China Drilling for Oil 50 Miles from Florida Shores - by James M. Taylor - The Heartland Institute

Quote:

Legislation to relax restrictions on offshore oil and gas recovery passed the U.S. House of Representatives Resources Committee on June 21 by a vote of 29-9.

House Resolution 4761, with more than 160 co-sponsors, gained significant attention after Cuba announced it would expand its leasing of oil and natural gas for Chinese drilling within 50 miles of the Florida Keys.

The House legislation would end all federal moratoria on resource recovery more than 100 miles from U.S. shores. Individual states would have the option of allowing recovery between 50 and 100 miles from their shores.

Currently, there is no blanket federal prohibition on resource recovery more than 100 miles from shore, but there are patchwork prohibitions established on a case-by-case basis. There is currently a blanket moratorium on resource recovery less than 100 miles from shore. These restrictions amount to a self-imposed moratorium on 85 percent of the nation's offshore oil reserves.

China Drilling Near Florida

The presence of Chinese oil rigs, there by agreement with Cuba, within view of the Florida coastline has irked state residents. Cuba has announced it will expand those operations.

"I saw all kinds of wells with Chinese writing on them just south of the Keys," Leonard Gropper, a Marathon, Florida retiree, told the June 20 Orlando Sun-Sentinel.

Then again....

"China drilling off Florida coast?"
Bradenton.com | 06/12/2008 | China drilling off Florida coast?

Quote:

Why, ask some Republicans, should the United States be thwarted from drilling in its own territory when just 50 miles off the Florida coastline the Chinese government is drilling for oil under Cuban leases?

Yet no one can prove the Chinese are drilling anywhere off Cuba's shoreline. The China-Cuba connection is "akin to urban legend," said Sen. Mel Martinez, a Republican from Florida who opposes drilling off the coast of his state but who backs exploration in ANWR.

"China is not drilling in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters, period," said Jorge Pinon, an energy fellow with the Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami and an expert in oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. Martinez cited Pinon's research when he took to the Senate floor Wednesday to set the record straight.

Even so, the Chinese-drilling-in-Cuba legend has gained momentum and has been swept up in Republican arguments to open up more U.S. territory to domestic production.

Vice President Dick Cheney, in a speech Wednesday to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, picked up the refrain. Cheney quoted a column by George Will, who wrote last week that "drilling is under way 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are."

In his speech, Cheney described the Chinese as being "in cooperation with the Cuban government. Even the communists have figured out that a good answer to higher prices means more supply."
(...)
The China-Cuba connection also appeared in an editorial Monday in Investor's Business Daily, which wrote that "the U.S. Congress has voted consistently to keep 85 percent of America's offshore oil and gas off-limits, while China and Cuba drill 60 miles from Key West, Fla."

And on Tuesday, Rep. George Radanovich, R-Calif., wrote in the Modesto Bee that "China, thanks to a lease issued by Cuba, is drilling for oil just 50 miles off Florida's coast."
(...)
Western diplomats in Havana tell McClatchy that to the best of their knowledge, there is no Chinese drilling in or around Cuba.

"I've never heard anything about this," said one diplomat from a country in the hemisphere.
(...)
Cuba's state oil company, Cupet, has issued exploration contracts to companies from India, Canada, Spain, Malaysia and Norway, according to diplomats.

But many oil companies from those countries have expressed reservations about how to turn potential crude oil into product. Cuba doesn't have the refinery capacity, and the Cuban embargo prohibits the oil from coming to U.S. refineries, Pinon said.

The most recent high-profile contract with Cuba went to Brazil's state oil company, Petrobras. Cuba inked a contract with Petrobras in January, allowing the Brazilian energy giant to search for oil in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico that are within Cuba's sovereign territory. Brazil's foreign minister, Celso Amorim, traveled to Cuba last month and talked up the oil business, along with a joint venture between Cuba and Petrobras to produce lubricants.

So... er.. no, I've got nothing. What's going on? If you listen to talk radio, you know that the commies are coming to steal the oil in ANWAR while Congress prevents american companies from drilling.

Hi_Im_Tim · #2 07-02-2008, 06:34 PM

So um there is no big upset among environmentalists (at least as far as I know) about this. So why can't we drill for oil off of our own coast?!

Don't you think that we would drill way more carefully than China and Cuba?

MenInTights · #3 07-03-2008, 12:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hi_Im_Tim

So um there is no big upset among environmentalists (at least as far as I know) about this. So why can't we drill for oil off of our own coast?!

Don't you think that we would drill way more carefully than China and Cuba?

This is the general thing that puzzles me. I posted a rant Harry Reid made a few days ago about coal and oil making us and the planet sick.
He was talking about us(America). If you cared so much, you would be passing economic sanctions on the countries that are really making the earth sick.

Here's a pop quiz:
China builds 2 conventional coal plants per ________?
A. week
B. month
C. year

Answer:

Don't blame America, Harry.

fleinn · #4 07-03-2008, 10:24 AM

..Still.. neither Cuba or China is actually drilling off the coast. And apparently the states have optional moratoriums on whether to start drilling or not, in the viable areas off the coast.

On the larger point - what we're seeing very often is that "we" in the west will refuse to trade technology with certain countries, while encouraging a particular economy, without showing the initiative necessary to control it - typically because we accept that we buy cheap goods, and are not willing to pay for goods we know are produced under such and such restrictions.

In fact, most people seem to say that it's not a problem at all - that the link to consumer culture is a false one, and should be dispensed with along with all the other myths the communists come up with. But when you say - well, it's they who should be fixing their consumption, not we - then you're not accepting the consequences in a global economy. Which - in theory - should make it more likely that people look more closely at their purchases. And indeed that they would have more power to control the market. However. It doesn't work that way, obviously. Tough luck, I'm afraid.

Hi_Im_Tim · #5 07-03-2008, 10:41 AM

Quote:

..Still.. neither Cuba or China is actually drilling off the coast.

Not yet but they are planning to start. And also Vietnam is trying to get permission from Cuba to drill off of the coast of Florida as well.

Hybrix · #6 07-03-2008, 10:44 AM

Isn't 50 miles off the coast considered international waters? If so I'm not sure there's much of anything at all anybody can do to stop this.

MenInTights · #7 07-03-2008, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fleinn

..Still.. neither Cuba or China is actually drilling off the coast. And apparently the states have optional moratoriums on whether to start drilling or not, in the viable areas off the coast.

On the larger point - what we're seeing very often is that "we" in the west will refuse to trade technology with certain countries, while encouraging a particular economy, without showing the initiative necessary to control it - typically because we accept that we buy cheap goods, and are not willing to pay for goods we know are produced under such and such restrictions.

In fact, most people seem to say that it's not a problem at all - that the link to consumer culture is a false one, and should be dispensed with along with all the other myths the communists come up with. But when you say - well, it's they who should be fixing their consumption, not we - then you're not accepting the consequences in a global economy. Which - in theory - should make it more likely that people look more closely at their purchases. And indeed that they would have more power to control the market. However. It doesn't work that way, obviously. Tough luck, I'm afraid.

I have no problems with China's economy and how they get their energy. I'm not freaking out about global warming especially since we are in a cooling phase right now. If there is climate change happening, I am confident the situation will work itself out in the next 20-40 years with new technology.
The people that are freaking out about global warming are the ones that want to exclude China from the Kyoto Treaty and anything else that (they say) will make a difference. It seems to me that they are more concerned with enlarging the scope of government than fighting climate change.

fleinn · #8 07-03-2008, 03:08 PM

Or using government for more regulation through a good excuse. Yes, that happens. It's no good trusting politicians to carry through like this.

But.. can't say I'm thrilled about the idea that this means no regulation is going to solve everything, either. I mean - people were up in arms about the entire "I'm using capitalism to change the world" - buy choosing to buy products I know have not been produced with child labour in Africa (like chocolate, etc.). Because it wasn't... callous enough to be capitalism, or something. Never figured that one out. But the idea will be moot if we have no means to actually know how the products are made. So no regulation in that context means uninformed buyers..

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