GOP leaders are up in arms over the fact that, as America dithers over the environmental cost of offshore drilling, the Chinese are stealing the oil right out from under our noses using Cuban drilling leases:
Even Vice President Dick 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.''
Nor is Cheney alone. A press release from House Minority Leader John Boehner charges:
Right at this moment, some 60 miles or less off the coast of Key West, Florida, China has the green light to drill for oil in order to lower energy costs in that country. Meanwhile, 1,210 miles in the opposite direction from Key West, Democrats in Washington, DC continue to block the United States from conducting environmentally-safe oil and gas exploration in similar areas off U.S. coasts.... Do congressional Democrats really trust the Chinese that much more than Americans?
Astonishingly enough, no they don't:
[I]ndustry 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 Pi