Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas The front page stories say that Cuba with the help of Spain will begin drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico both alarming & disheartening for American officials. While the Obama administration imposes restrictions on off shore oil drilling on American companies these same drills move a few miles south and take American jobs with them.
Yes American jobs would be exported while these new deeper oil wells Cuba & Spain plan to drill present environmental threats to states on the Gulf of Mexico.
One problem with the story that ran among other mainstream newspapers in The New York Times and The Miami Herald however. It is simply not new.
A simple Google search will show that American publications have been talking about China drilling in Cuban Gulf of Mexico waters for more than four years. The only news is that Cubas partner in 2010 is Spain while in earlier years it was planning to do so with China.
On May 29 2006 (yes 2006) AmericanFreePress.net first published a story about the Cuba-China oil drilling agreement. Not satisfied with a little known publication? Well then what would one say to a story published that same year by FoxNews.com? Too conservative? Then what do you say to stories published in the USNews website in 2009?
Whether Cuba has begun drilling or when it will do so is not the question nor the issue. Nor is it what concerns American oil workers particularly those in Louisiana and Texas.
There is no clear demarcation of where one can drill to make sure that the U.S. Gulf beaches and marshes are not polluted by an oil well leak like the one of the Deepwater Horizon wellhead in late April or to prevent the 
1000 barrels of oil that still leak daily into the Gulf.
Cuba and the United States have drawn a line that divides the Florida Straits waters between Cuba and Florida in half. That means that Cuba and China could drill for wells 45 miles from the shores of Florida and the United States could do nothing but watch.
American jobs would migrate to Cuban and Spanish citizens.
And any oil leak would put Florida in just as much peril as Cuba.
And then there is the possibility that with underwater lateral drilling these well in Cuban waters could tap into oil reservoirs under waters that fall within U.S. jurisdiction.
Yet the American government insists on imposing restrictions on American off-shore oil drilling. This hurts American workers so much that Louisiana Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu placed a hold on President Barack Obamas nominee to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) until the drill ban was lifted.
We impose restrictions on oil drilling that provides Americans with jobs and stand by with hands on hips unable to do anything to stop Cuba and Spain from getting at that same oil from the wells they will start drilling.
It doesnt make sense. The American government is blind and dumb to this blatant double standard. What these extreme environmentalists dont see is that while we may hurt American workers and try to make our planet a better place others will do so anyway. And in this particular case they may do so an damage our environment anyway.
It is the essence of hypocrisy.
A hypocrisy that The New York Times recognized in a story published on the web Sept. 29 years after Americans were told what Cuba and China were planning to do and what Cuba will now do with Spain.
Here are the first four paragraphs of the story in the NYT.
Five months after the BP oil spill a federal moratorium still prohibits new deepwater drilling in the American waters of the Gulf of Mexico. And under longstanding federal law drilling is 
also banned near the coast of Florida.
Yet next year a Spanish company will begin drilling new wells 50 miles from the Florida Keys in Cubas sovereign waters.
Cuba currently produces little oil. But oil experts say the country might have reserves along its north coast as plentiful as that of the international oil middleweights Ecuador and Colombia enough to bolster its faltering economy and cut its dependence on Venezuela for its energy needs.
The advent of drilling in Cuban waters poses risks both to the island nation and the United States. Ocean scientists warn that a well blowout similar to the BP disaster could send oil spewing onto Cuban beaches and then the Florida Keys in as little as three days. If the oil reached the Gulf Stream a powerful ocean current that passes through the region oil could flow up the coast to Miami and beyond" the story said.
That assessment is not disputed. Oil specialists and scientists quoted in the story published by The Miami Herald present the same picture. Drilling off Cubas north coast could potentially be more ecologically damaging to the Gulf Coast than was the Deepwater Horizon catastrophic oil spill. All the above is straightforward reporting with a little research. Now comes the most unbelievable part of the story. What do American oil companies want to do? Get the American government to lift the embargo on Cuba so they could participate in the exploration and exploitation process and of course share in the profits. Oh and by the way this would give Cuba better technology in case of an oil spill. Technology like the one BP used in the Gulf this Spring and Summer. Why do American oil executives want to do this? The answer is obvious. American environmentalists are so blind that they will never permit similar drilling near the U.S. coast. No they would never go for that even if this would give American authorities more control over safety measures. Ah but the cannot do anything about
stopping Cuba and Spain from drilling for oil in the same waters.
So the See No Evil! Hear No Evil! and Speak No Evil! phrase applies.
Do it in Cuba even if it hurts American workers. Do it in Cuba even if we have no control over their safety regulations. And do it in Cuba and allow American companies to help lift the embargo. For the issue is not helping this country but rather seeing its power slowly erode.
One need not believe what this story says. Just read what a top environmentalist said in the story published by The Miami Herald.
Environmentalists suggested the prospect of rigs just 45 miles from Floridas coastline could intensify pressure for the Obama administration to engage in talks with its Cold War antagonist to prevent ecological damage.
A policy of isolationism doesnt benefit anyone. We have a selfish interest in talking with Cuba" said David Guggenheim a conference organizer and senior fellow at The Ocean Foundation in Washington. At a minimum you need a good Rolodex."
The NYT story said that right now Cubas oil industry is served almost exclusively by non-American companies. Repsol a Spanish oil company has contracted with an Italian operator to build a rig in China that is scheduled to begin drilling several deepwater test wells next year.
Other companies from Norway India Malaysia Venezuela Vietnam and Brazil have taken exploration leases.
The Americano
