It is a nightmare scenario: an oil well blows out in Cuban waters, sending oil gushing into the sea. The nearest capping stack, in Texas, cannot be shipped to Cuba because of the longstanding U.S. embargo on trade with the island nation. As a slick drifts towards the coast of Florida, American emergency responders are helpless to stem the flow. Hoping to head to off such a disaster, Cuban and U.S. officials on Jan. 9 signed an agreement in Havana to establish a bilateral plan to coordinate their response to oil spills or similar accidents. The agreement would apply to “pollution events” that occur in either country’s sovereign waters or exclusive economic zones and that could affect the other nation. The question now is whether... [Log in to read more]
