July 25, 2006
At last, there will be drilling for oil off the Florida coast. This is long overdue and could help immensely with our energy needs.
Oh, wait. It isn’t the United States interests that will be looking for new oil as close as 60 miles off the Florida coast. It’s Cuba and they are getting help from China, Canada and Spain.
Environmentalists in Florida and congress have prevented drilling by u.s. interests, but Cuba sees the value of drilling and it’s getting help from two supposed allies of ours and a great big enemy.
Imagine if Cuba strikes oil what it will do to its wretched economy? The same potential for oil spills will exist, but Cuba will get all of the benefits. So we save the birds and fish and Cuba gets a big energy and economic boon? How crazy is that?
The fact is that technology has improved tremendously since the days of those classic oil spills that fouled beaches and killed wildlife. We are hurting ourselves by not exploring for oil where we know it exists and giving Cuba a free hand.
Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.
