• Submitted by: manso
• Politics and Government
• 05 / 20 / 2011

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Today's New York Times has a piece on William Reilly, co-chair of the panel that made recommendations on the safety of Gulf oil drilling. He complains that the Obama administration slapped his wrist when he expressed interest in visiting Cuba to express interest in their plans to drill 50 miles off Key Wests' shore.

According to the Times:

" "I have been causing grief to the State Department," Reilly, a former U.S. EPA chief under President George H.W. Bush, said during an event hosted by Resources for the Future in Washington, D.C.

Cuba is developing plans to drill 16 oil and gas wells in waters 50 miles from Key West, Fla., using Spanish oil and gas giant Repsol YPF and Russian natural gas producer Gazprom.

"That's something that's very important to us, I think, given that they're drilling 50 miles off Key West, so I've asked to be invited to Cuba to talk about the report and have had my wrist slapped by the administration for raising the sensitive Cuban issue," Reilly said. "I had to say, 'I don't work for you.'" "

Capitol Hill Cubans fires back, pointing out "Sadly, the NYT failed to disclose that Reilly is a Senior Advisor for TPG Capital (Texas Pacific Group), one of the largest private equity firms (based in Ft. Worth, Texas) with huge investments in oil and gas. He is also head of one of its affiliates.

Who else is a Senior Advisor for TPG Capital?

None other than Alfonso Cortina de Alcocer, the former Chairman and CEO of Repsol, who led the Spanish oil company's expansion in Latin America from 1996 through 2004, when Repsol first sought to drill for oil with the Cuban government." (emphasis their's)

What do you think? Conflict of interest? Or does it go without saying that the oil and gas experts interested in drilling are going to have interests... in drilling?

-Frances Robles

Source: miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/2011/05/nyt-on-cuba-oil-drilling-plans.html