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Oil prices lead legislators
to urge dropping Cuba ban
By Lesley Clark, Knight
Ridder. Contra
Costa Times, May 12, 2006.
WASHINGTON - Two critics of the law that
bans U.S. companies from doing business
in Cuba want to relax the embargo to allow
the American oil and gas industry to partner
with Cuba to drill near the island nation.
Such efforts have been rebuffed in past
years, but the legislators suggested Thursday
that public anxiety over the rising cost
of gasoline may provide enough momentum.
"I'm convinced the world has changed
significantly," said Sen. Larry Craig,
an Idaho Republican. "With $3 gas a
reality to the consumer, it causes us to
reexamine policy."
He and Rep. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican
who has long championed relaxing sanctions
against Cuba, filed legislation Thursday
in the House and Senate, picking up support
among legislators eager to show they are
taking action to ease soaring energy prices.
Flake noted that one of his co-sponsors,
Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., had opposed
his earlier efforts to relax the ban on
most travel to Cuba.
But supporters of the embargo, including
President Bush, were quick to dismiss the
effort. Bush told reporters in Orlando on
Wednesday that he is opposed to allowing
companies to work with Cuba.
Joined by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., Craig
and Flake noted that some of the country's
biggest competitors for energy are already
involved in oil and gas exploration efforts
off the north coast of Cuba -- about 50
miles from Key West.
"We need to be able to compete for
resources that are off America's coast,"
Thune said. "Countries like China are
able to take advantage of the rich resources
off the coast. If we don't, they will."
Though few rich veins have been tapped,
Craig said the U.S. Geological Survey has
estimated there could be as much as 9 billion
barrels of oil in the area.
And he suggested there is an environmental
benefit to U.S. involvement, suggesting
that the countries now drilling off Cuba
do not have the U.S. oil industry's experience.
"If oil is going to be developed 50
miles from the Keys, then it ought to be
by the world's expert and the world's best,"
Craig said.
The Cuban government -- which does not
have the technology required for such deep-water
drilling -- has entered into agreements
with several companies, including some from
Spain, China and Canada.
And U.S involvement would be more than
welcome, Craig said.
He noted that on an agricultural trade
mission to the island two years ago, the
interior minister of Cuba encouraged him
to "convince the American government
to allow U.S. companies to participate.
"It was briefly discussed, but of
course current policy simply was not going
to allow that to happen," Craig said.
U.S. companies are eager to explore the
area. Executives from U.S. giants including
ExxonMobil Corp., Caterpillar and Valero
Energy Corp., one of the largest U.S. refiners,
each paid about $2,000 to attend a meeting
in Mexico in February to learn more about
Cuba's oil fields.
Efforts to relax the U.S. embargo -- or
even scrap it altogether -- have increased
since the late 1990s with legislators from
agricultural states eager for new markets
and critical of a policy they say is largely
a function of Florida politics.
But critics of the embargo were defeated
in the House last year when they tried to
ease other sanctions against Cuba. And Bush,
who has threatened vetoes against such efforts,
said Wednesday he is against it.
"I know the money would go to support
a government that is suppressing the rights
of its people," he told Florida reporters
at an interview in Orlando.
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