US lawmakers eye oil spill payment from neighbours

WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (AFP): Two US senators introduced a bill Wednesday seeking to guarantee compensation for any oil spill originating in waters outside the United States, as Cuba aims to strike black gold off its north coast. In theory, the bill could involve any US neighbor, from Mexico to the Bahamas or Canada. But it is Cuba's new, promising drive for oil-which could potentially turn it from a poor, isolated communist outpost into a flush oil-exporting neighbor after decades of dependency on allies-that has US lawmakers riled and worried. Particularly after the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, US interests across the Gulf coast fear that the island largely dependent on Venezuelan assistance does not have the finances or knowhow to stop an environmental disaster in the event of a major oil spill.