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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PROLIFE who wrote (740243)	5/12/2006 10:10:51 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

No NEED to, Pro.... The first paragraph covered the high points... all the rest was details! Strictly FYI. ================================================== "...The Bush administration does not see a need to increase the size of the armed forces right now. It believes that 2.7 percent is too much of a pay raise for the military. And it does not want to maintain its current fleet of 12 aircraft carriers." White House Opposes Parts of Defense Bill By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: May 12, 2006 Filed at 2:52 a.m. ET

To: PROLIFE who wrote (740243)	5/13/2006 1:51:38 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

Senator Favors Waiver for U.S. Producers to Explore Cuban Waters Intelligence Press 5/9/2006 URL: rigzone.com Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) is planning to offer legislation that would give U.S. producers an exemption to explore for oil and natural gas in the Cuban waters of the Florida Straits. The measure would exempt domestic producers from a December 1977 treaty between the U.S. and Cuba, which established a 313-mile long boundary separating the U.S.-controlled side of the Florida Straits from Cuba's side. Last December, President Bush renewed the 1977 treaty for two years. Craig expects to offer his bill in a week, said spokesman Dan Whiting. Current U.S. policy bars U.S. producers from developing oil and natural gas fields that lie in Cuban waters and come within 50 miles of Florida, according to Craig. As the U.S. maintains its ban on drilling offshore Florida and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, Cuba has partnered with China and other energy-starved countries to develop the fields that are "within spitting distance of our shores without competition from U.S. industries," he said. Craig took to the Senate floor in late April to complain about U.S. policy, saying producers "[are] hobbled by self-defeating laws and regulations that allow our economic adversaries and competitors to beat us to the punch right on our doorstep" in the Florida Keys. "We have hamstrung the U.S. energy sector from seeking additional resources in the region, while at the same time allowing the likes of China, Canada, Brazil, France and others to freely seek energy opportunities 50 miles off our coast without competition from state-of-the-art technologies and expertise of our own U.S. gas and oil industries," he said. "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 resources within eyesight of the U.S. coast," Craig noted. "We will miss a boat that won't sail twice if we don't allow U.S. companies to at least explore the possibilities of new supplies in neighboring countries." The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that undiscovered resources on Cuba's side may be as much as 4.6 billion barrels of oil and 9.8 Tcf of natural gas. The Interior Department agency has been precluded from reviewing the resource potential of the U.S. side of the Florida Keys. Craig's legislation will face an uncertain future, given that a number of lawmakers on Capitol Hill are opposed to any economic relationship with Cuba as long as Fidel Castro is president, The New York Times reported. Copyright 2006 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved.