Bill protects Keys from oil drilling
BY BECKY IANNOTTA
Citizen Staff
KEY
WEST — While Florida lawmakers have been battling oil drilling efforts
off Florida's
Gulf coast, Cuba
has signed deals with oil companies in China, Spain and Canada that
could put oil rigs within 45 miles of Key West.
Members of Congress
intent on opening areas off the U.S. coast to drilling in recent weeks
have cited Cuba's
plans as a reason to drill closer to Florida's shores.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson
(D-FL) introduced legislation Thursday night to try to halt plans to
drill for oil within the 90 miles that separate Havana and Key West. The
legislation would allow the U.S. government to deny visas to foreign oil
executives conducting business with Cuba and curb their ability to do
business in the
United States. A
decades-old trade embargo already forbids
U.S.
companies from doing business with Cuba.
The Florida Keys National
Marine Sanctuary surrounding the Keys, and American taxpayers' $8
billion investment in the Everglades restoration project, add to the
urgency of protecting the South Florida coastline, Nelson told The
Citizen on Friday.
"If you have oil rigs out
there ... and those oil rigs rupture 45 miles off Key West, that oil
goes right into those delicate coral reefs and right up the coast of
Florida," Nelson said.
Nelson's legislation
would prevent the U.S. State Department from renewing a 1977 agreement
between Cuba
and the United States that allows Cuba to conduct commercial activity
halfway between
Cuba and Key West
unless Cuba agrees to refrain from oil drilling there. President Jimmy
Carter negotiated the Maritime Boundary Agreement after each country
claimed jurisdiction 200 miles off their coasts. Because the United
States and Cuba are only 90 miles apart, the two countries agreed to
split the distance, with each taking jurisdiction over 45 miles. The
State Department has renewed the agreement every two years since, but it
expired Dec. 31,
2005, said Nelson,
who contends the agreement was only for fisheries management.
Nelson said the
legislation is a start, and that foreign oil companies might be
dissuaded from spending millions on oil exploration if jurisdiction over
the waters is in question and if they will be denied U.S. visas.
"All of those oil
executives want to do business in the United States," he said.
Pro-Cuba trade
organizations criticized Nelson's legislation, saying it would fail to
stop countries like China from moving ahead with plans to post oil rigs
north and west of
Havana.
"This is a result of
years of our refusal to talk to Cuba about things where we have an
interest," said Kirby Jones, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade
Association, which promotes U.S.-Cuba trade relations. "It may look good
politically, but on a practical basis, you can't pass a law in one
country prohibiting something in another."
Nelson argues that
declining to renew the 1977 agreement would extend current U.S. law, in
which the United States claims control of all waters 200 miles off its
coast, to the waters between Cuba and Key West.
Cuba has divided its
northern and western boundaries into 59 blocks and has leased 12 blocks
between Havana and Key West for oil exploration, Jones said.
Nelson was spurred into
action after at least two senators said this month that if Cuba can
drill within 45 miles of Florida's coast, then U.S. oil companies should
not be blocked from drilling closer than 100 miles off Florida's coast,
the limit Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida's representatives previously were
able to negotiate.
Idaho Republican Sen.
Larry Craig said Wednesday that protections in place aimed at preserving
the coastline have hamstrung oil companies, while Cuba is free to tap an
estimated 4.6 billion barrels of oil, and possibly as much as 9.3
billion barrels, according to a 2005 U.S. Geological Survey report.
Pennsylvania Republican Rep. John Peterson made similar statements
earlier this month.
"So, the question must be
asked, 'What is the U.S. doing while foreign companies and countries are
exploring right off the U.S. coast in the North Cuba Basin ...'" Craig
said on the Senate floor Wednesday. "Well, I can firmly tell my
colleagues that we are doing absolutely nothing. Not one single U.S.
company is exploring in these potentially beneficial waters that extend
to within 50 miles off the coast of Florida. So, we sit here watching
China exploit a valuable resource within eye-sight of the
U.S.
coast."
Those comments "started a
little dust-up," Nelson said.
"I took him on ...
because that's what they want, to drill off the entire coast of
Florida," he said.
Nelson and Sen. Mel
Martinez co-sponsored legislation in February to ban oil drilling 150
miles from the Panhandle and 260 miles from the west coast in response
to Bush administration plans to open an area previously off-limits in
the Gulf of Mexico. |
