The Republicans lied - the Chinese ARE NOT drilling for oil near Cuba!

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

The GOP is in the midst of a coordinated effort to slam Democrats for a seemingly outrageous contradiction: While Democrats—with the help of Florida Republicans—block oil drilling off the Florida shore, China is doing just that a mere 60 miles off the coast of Cuba. Vice President ####### Cheney, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) have all raised the specter of Chinese drilling off Cuba’s coast.

In a recent speech, 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."

The truth of that claim, however, is seriously in doubt.

Democrats today pointed to a February 29, 2008 Congressional Research Service that found “[w]hile there has been some concern about China’s potential involvement in offshore deepwater oil projects, to date its involvement in Cuba’s oil sector has been focused on onshore oil extraction in Pinar del Rio province through its state-run China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec).”

Sen. Mel Martinez, a Florida Republican, took to the Senate floor Wednesday and called the alleged Cuba drilling “akin to urban legend.”

Shown the quote from the CRS report, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in an e-mail that the “fact is China can drill off the cost of the United States and Americans can’t. At a time when the nationwide average price for a gallon of gas is over $4, that policy just doesn’t make sense.”

The GOP campaign doesn’t argue, however, that China “can” drill off the coast of Cuba—but rather that they are already doing it. Boehner released a statement yesterday headlined: “WHILE CHINA EXPLORES OIL AND GAS 60 MILES FROM AMERICAN SHORES, DEM MAJORITY KEEPS AMERICA’S ENERGY RESOURCES UNDER LOCK-AND-KEY.”

Steel cited to a 2006 New York Times story that mentions lease agreements negotiated between Cuba and China to support the claim, the same story cited by other Republicans pressing the issue.

The Times reported that “[w]ith only modest energy needs and no ability of its own to drill, Cuba has negotiated lease agreements with China and other energy-hungry countries to extract resources for themselves and for Cuba.”

McClatchy Newspapers and the Miami Herald have called the claim into question, as well, citing energy experts, though not the CRS report.

Blunt spokesman Chris Tucker walked it back a bit. He said that while it does appear that China is not drilling off-shore, the operation may be using a horizontal technique that could reach into the water. Regardless, he said, some sort of exploration is being done on or near Cuba.

“Whether the Chinese drilling operation in Cuba is done horizontally, vertically, or obliquely – the truth remains that state-owned Chinese energy producers are operating 50 miles closer to the Florida Keys than this Congress allows any American firm to get. Throw in the fact that Venezuela occupies four offshore drilling blocks in the Gulf, Vietnam has four, and India claims at least seven – and you really start to wonder how much higher prices have to get before Democrats allow us to compete for our own energy resources,” he said.

A House Democratic aide responded that the entire debate is a “completely hypothetical argument” and a “ridiculous notion” because “Cuba does not have the refinery capacity to refine any oil that China would drill there, so what is China going to do, take it to Europe? Take [it] back to China?

Jorge Piñon, an energy fellow at the University of Miami’s Center for Hemispheric Policy, provided Congress with a map showing which nations control which portions of Cuba’s potential offshore drilling area. China controls none of the offshore blocks, but does control an onshore area.

They’re labeled as such: N25-29, N36 is a joint partnership of Repsol (Spain); ONGC (India); and Statoil (Norway)

N16, N23-24, N33 is Sherritt (Canada)

N34-35 is ONGC (India)

N44-45, N50-51 is Petronas (Malaysia)

N53-54, N58-59: is PDVSA (Venezuela)

N31-32, N42-43: is PetroVietnam

http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/060..._near_Cuba.html

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

That's all the Republicans have to support their misguided agenda: half truths, flat out lies, misinformation, smoke and mirrors. Oh, and fear.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Unfortunately regardless of it being untrue - the fact is that these guys don't care. They rely on people not being able or simply not bother to fact-check these claims - and they get what they want. A cheap slam on the other side for short-term gain.

[GaryC 7]

That's all the Republicans have to support their misguided agenda: half truths, flat out lies, misinformation, smoke and mirrors. Oh, and fear.

Opps! You should fact check before you demonstrate your fake outrage. China is negotiating for the rights to drill. See all those white spaces? Those have yet to be allocated.

China, Cuba reported in Gulf oil partnership

U.S. firms stand by, prohibited from bidding on contracts; lawmakers propose opening up U.S. coast for drilling.

May 9, 2006: 10:12 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Plans for foreign oil companies, some from India and China, to drill off the cost of Cuba are prompting calls from lawmakers to ease environmental restrictions that prohibit coastal drilling in most of the U.S., according to a report Tuesday.

At a time of rising soaring gasoline prices caused partly by a lack of supply, legislators are fuming that Cuba is opening up its continental shelf for oil and gas exploration while most of the U.S. continental shelf outside the Gulf of Mexico, which extends 200 miles from shore, has been off limits for drilling since the early 1980s, the New York Times reported.

Firms from China and India will be drilling for oil off the coast of Cuba, but U.S. companies are prohibited from bidding on the contracts, according to a recent report.

Firms from China and India will be drilling for oil off the coast of Cuba, but U.S. companies are prohibited from bidding on the contracts, according to a recent report.

Adding insult to injury, the Times said U.S. firms were invited to bid on the Cuban contracts, but were barred by the U.S. government due to the country's longstanding economic embargo of communist Cuba.

"Red China should not be left to drill for oil within spitting distance of our shores without competition from U.S. industries," Sen. Larry Craig, Republican of Idaho, told the Times.

Firms from Canada and Spain will also drill off the Cuban coast, the article said

Craig is introducing a bill to exempt U.S. oil firms from the embargo, much as food and drug firms are, according to the article.

There are also several bills moving through Congress aimed at opening up areas more areas of the U.S. to oil and gas exploration, including coastal waters and Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Supporters of the bills, including the oil industry, say it would help bring down oil and gas prices and decrease the country's reliance on oil imports from the volatile Middle East.

Gasoline prices have soared 33 percent over the last year, while the price of crude oil has tripled since 2002.

But critics of more drilling say the energy obtained, which they say would be minimal and wouldn't bring down prices that much, isn't worth the environmental risks. They also say more drilling for a finite resource does nothing to promote long term conservation solutions.

Most coastal states also oppose offshore drilling, fearing unsightly rigs and oil spills will hurt their tourism industries.

The United States Geological Survey estimates the Cuban deal involves 4.6 billion barrels of oil and 9.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to the Times. The paper said that's enough oil and gas to power the U.S. for a few months.

The paper also cited an Interior Department study that said the U.S. continental shelf contained 115 billion barrels of oil and 633 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. That would be enough oil to satisfy U.S. demand, at current consumption levels, for 16 years and enough natural gas for 25 years, according to the Times.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/09/news/econo..._cuba/index.htm

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Right - but negotiating a contract is different from "doing".

It also says in that article that numerous oil companies and countries are involved in that negotiation - and the US would be too - if it weren't for that silly embargo.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

That's all the Republicans have to support their misguided agenda: half truths, flat out lies, misinformation, smoke and mirrors. Oh, and fear.

Opps! You should fact check before you demonstrate your fake outrage. China is negotiating for the rights to drill. See all those white spaces? Those have yet to be allocated.

Gary, you quote the very article that the CRS and other sources have just called into question. Is that all you got? More smoke and mirrors?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Story from the Miami Herald. This is from today BTW.

WASHINGTON -- With gas topping $4 a gallon, some Republicans are pointing to Cuba once again to bolster their case that the U.S. should be drilling along Florida's coastline.

The claim: China has Cuban leases to drill for oil -- miles from the Florida shore.

Even Vice President ####### Cheney got into the mix Wednesday, telling the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that ``oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida. We're not doing it. The Chinese are in cooperation with the Cuban government.

''Even the communists have figured out that a good answer to high prices is more supply,'' he added. ``Yet Congress has said . . . no to drilling off Florida.''

But industry experts and other observers say there is zero evidence that China is drilling in Cuban waters, and doesn't even hold a lease to drill offshore.

''China is not drilling in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters, period,'' said Jorge Piñon, an energy expert at the University of Miami's Center for Hemispheric Policy.

Rising gas prices are prompting renewed efforts to open Florida waters to drilling, and the specter of oil-thirsty China slurping up nearby reserves is helping to fuel the push: In recent days, House Republican leaders have penned newspaper opinion pieces making the claim.

`DEBUNKING THE MYTH'

The renewed efforts prompted Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, who opposes drilling off Florida's coast, to take to the Senate floor Wednesday to -- as his office put it -- ''debunk the myth'' of China drilling in Cuban waters.

''Reports to the contrary are simply false,'' Martinez said, his remarks delivered just before Cheney spoke. ``They are akin to urban legends. China drilling off the coast of Cuba only 60 miles from the Keys, that is not taking place. . . Any talk of using some fabricated Cuba-China connection as an argument to change U.S. policy has no merit.''

House Minority Leader John Boehner's office defended the GOP drilling claims, pointing to a 2006 New York Times story that noted Cuba had ``negotiated lease agreements with China and other energy-hungry countries to extract resources.''

''The fact is China can drill off the coast of the United States and Americans can't,'' said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel. ``At a time when the nationwide average price for a gallon of gas is over $4, that policy just doesn't make sense.''

The latest effort to bring drilling closer to Florida's shores by lifting a decades-old ban on gas and oil exploration along the outer continental shelf was rapidly defeated Wednesday in a House subcommittee meeting along partisan lines. Democrats on the panel said the measure was ''unnecessary'' because most of the known reserves along the coast are already open for drilling. Committee Chairman Rep. Norm Dicks, a Washington state Democrat, noted that the Bush administration, too, opposes lifting the ban.

PUSHING THE MEASURE

But Rep. John Peterson, a Pennsylvania Republican, said he plans to keep pushing the measure, which would allow drilling 50 miles beyond the shoreline.

Florida's congressional delegation remains staunchly opposed to offshore drilling, and Martinez noted the delegation had reached a compromise in December 2006 to give up eight million acres in the Gulf of Mexico in exchange for the state getting at least a 125-mile buffer zone from drilling.

Piñon, who supports oil and gas exploration, said he met with several congressional offices Wednesday about the China-Cuba connection. He said he told them: ' `If you guys want to use this as a scare tactic to lift the moratorium on drilling off the west coast of Florida, at least be factual, be correct.' They didn't do their homework.''

China's Sinopec oil company does have an agreement with the Cuban government to develop onshore resources west of Havana, Piñon said. The Chinese have done some seismic testing, he said, but no drilling. Western diplomats in Havana told McClatchy that to the best of their knowledge there is no Chinese drilling offshore.

Cuba's state oil company, Cupet, has issued exploration contracts to companies from India, Canada, Spain, Malaysia and Norway. 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 biggest potential market -- the U.S. -- is off limits because of the trade embargo.

McClatchy Washington Bureau reporters Kevin Hall and David Lightman contributed to this report.

Edited June 12, 2008 by Number 6

[HAL 9000 96]

Loved that last part-

"off limits because of the trade embargo."

Some people will never learn.

Anyway... its Cuba's territory, right? Or is Manifest Destiny going to be jingoed now back into existence?