In spite of serious threats from a bipartisan group, the Cuban program continues its trend with the nearly arrival of the Scarabeo platform. The United States is suffering from high unemployment, high energy prices, stagnant economic growth, and a massive budget deficit. By expediting the development of offshore oil resources, the government could tackle all four of these problems simultaneously. Yet for some reason, the Administration continues to drag its feet.">In spite of serious threats from a bipartisan group, the Cuban program continues its trend with the nearly arrival of the Scarabeo platform. The United States is suffering from high unemployment, high energy prices, stagnant economic growth, and a massive budget deficit. By expediting the development of offshore oil resources, the government could tackle all four of these problems simultaneously. Yet for some reason, the Administration continues to drag its feet.">

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Cuba goes ahead with its offshore drilling: Repsol

In spite of serious threats from a bipartisan group, the Cuban program continues its trend with the nearly arrival of the Scarabeo platform. The United States is suffering from high unemployment, high energy prices, stagnant economic growth, and a massive budget deficit. By expediting the development of offshore oil resources, the government could tackle all four of these problems simultaneously. Yet for some reason, the Administration continues to drag its feet.

In contrast, the Cuban government has no problem providing a hungry world with more oil. This is leading to an awkward situation indeed, especially when some experts who recently visited Cuba report that the Havana government is taking the project seriously and is heeding the lessons of the BP spill.

Rather than taking the Cuban move as a kick in the pants to expedite comparable American efforts, the U.S. government did what it does best—threaten punishment on private companies for daring to provide the world with more energy. According to a story from The Hill:

A bipartisan group of 34 House members is pressuring Spanish oil giant Repsol to abandon its plans to drill in deep waters off Cuba’s northern coast, warning that the company could face liability in U.S. courts.

 The Sept. 27 letter is signed by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and includes a substantial number of Florida lawmakers.

Repsol plans to begin looking for oil off Cuba’s coast as soon as late 2011, according to press reports.

This is not the place to discuss the pros and cons of the U.S. embargo on Cuba, except to say that if the original purpose of the 1960s policy was to hurt the Castro government, it doesn’t seem to be working too well.

The important lesson for today is that the other governments of the world aren’t nearly as foolish as the Americans’. They recognize that when you have valuable natural resources located in your jurisdiction, it makes sense to go ahead and develop them.

The U.S. government can continue wagging its finger at everybody else, and lecturing them on how they should emulate our great example in government investments in renewables…or American officials might decide to unshackle entrepreneurs to create jobs and cheaper energy.

Source: http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/40950

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