http:\/\/www.nypost.com\/p\/news\/international\/havana_fit_over_cuba_oil_drilling_kXtn49UB9SjNODrYo90gDN<\/p>\n
Finally, a public announcement of concern by the Obama administration, although I know they have been working behind the scenes for a while on this issue<\/em>……..DV<\/p>\n By JOSH MARGOLIN EXCLUSIVE<\/p>\n It’s a sure-fire recipe for disaster — Cuban oil mixing with Florida’s waters. Adding to US concerns over a possible BP-like disaster for Florida is the lack of relations between the federal government and Cuba’s Communist regime — which would make the United States’ ability to prevent or deal with such an accident even more difficult, the officials said.<\/p>\n “People are crazy over this. It’s a very big problem,” said an Obama administration source. “They’re talking about drilling off Cuba, but the way currents flow, the oil would hit Florida.”<\/p>\n Federal and environmental authorities have been huddling behind closed doors for months to come up with a plan for dealing with the start of the drilling — some of which could occur just 50 miles off Florida’s shore.<\/p>\n Cuba is currently awaiting the arrival of its first oil platform from Singapore before starting to drill.<\/p>\n The Spanish company Respol will operate the rig — the first of many — in Cuban waters in the Florida Straits due south of Florida.<\/p>\n Tomorrow, the Obama administration is scheduled to brief Congress on its plan to deal with the tense issue — as memories of the massive BP spill from the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico last year are still looming large in everyone’s minds.<\/p>\n The State Department has taken the lead in assembling the plan — but officials in the departments of Homeland Security and the Interior and the Coast Guard and the EPA have also been wringing their hands over the issue.<\/p>\n The groups’ talks come months after the Obama administration OK’d the resumption of deep-water drilling in parts of the Gulf off the US coast after the Louisiana disaster.<\/p>\n But the United States has never allowed domestic offshore oil rigs in its own waters off Florida’s coastline, in large part because of concerns that an accident or pollution could wreak havoc with the state’s valued tourism industry, including the environmentally sensitive Everglades.<\/p>\n But now Florida will face that very threat, because Cuba’s cash-strapped dictatorship is eager to tap into — and profit from — what could be up to 20 billion barrels of petroleum spread under 43,000 square miles of ocean floor.<\/p>\n “We’re worried, from an environmental standpoint, because Florida’s waters are environmentally sensitive . . . Everyone’s very concerned about the Keys and Everglades,” said Jeff Tittel, a senior official with the Sierra Club.<\/p>\n “For [Cuba], this is a big economic boom. And they don’t get the pollution [threat],” Tittel said.<\/p>\n To deal with a spill that could threaten Florida — and possibly waters as far up the coast as North Carolina — US officials could theoretically let Cuba or its drilling partners tap into a $1 billion fund the United States maintains to deal with such accidents. But hardliners in Congress would be expected to fight against that.<\/p>\n American oil companies actually want to get in on the Cuban drilling themselves, but they need to get the US government’s approval first.<\/p>\n They have argued that they should be allowed to drill off Cuba’s coast because they are best equipped to deal with any potential spills.<\/p>\n But administration officials are stuck politically, because Florida’s influential Cuban-exile community strongly opposes additional economic interaction with Cuba.<\/p>\n Special thanks to Richard Charter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" http:\/\/www.nypost.com\/p\/news\/international\/havana_fit_over_cuba_oil_drilling_kXtn49UB9SjNODrYo90gDN Finally, a public announcement of concern by the Obama administration, although I know they have been working behind the scenes for a while on this issue……..DV By JOSH MARGOLIN Last Updated: 7:11 AM, October 17, 2011 Posted: 2:25 AM, October 17, 2011 EXCLUSIVE It’s a sure-fire recipe for disaster — Cuban oil mixing with … Continue reading New York Post: Havana fit over Cuba oil drilling<\/span>
\nLast Updated: 7:11 AM, October 17, 2011
\nPosted: 2:25 AM, October 17, 2011<\/p>\n
\nThe Obama administration is frantically gearing up for the start of Cuba’s controversial off-shore oil drilling in December, worried that a spill would create an environmental catastrophe for Florida’s coastline, officials told The Post.<\/p>\n