Cuba's energy situation termed "critical"
Dionysus
HEAD: Cuba orders extreme measures to cut energy use
SUB-HEADS:
--Cuba's energy situation termed "critical"
--Some factories, workshops to be closed through December
--Most other economic activities to be reduced
HAVANA, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Cuba has ordered all state enterprises to adopt
"extreme measures" to cut energy usage through the end of the year in hopes
of avoiding the dreaded blackouts that plagued the country following the
1991 collapse of its then-top ally, the Soviet Union.
In documents seen by Reuters, government officials have been warned that the
island is facing a "critical" energy shortage that requires the closing of
non-essential factories and workshops and the shutting down of air
conditioners and refrigerators not needed to preserve food and medicine.
Cuba has cut government spending and slashed imports after being hit hard by
the global financial crisis and the cost of recovering from three hurricanes
that struck last year.
"The energy situation we face is critical and if we do not adopt extreme
measures we will have to revert to planned blackouts affecting the
population," said a recently circulated message from the Council of
Ministers.
"Company directors will analyze the activities that will be stopped and
others reduced, leaving only those that guarantee exports, substitution of
imports and basic services for the population," according to another
distributed by the light industry sector.
President Raul Castro is said to be intent on not repeating the experience
of the 1990s, when the demise of the Soviet Union and the loss of its steady
oil supply caused frequent electricity blackouts and hardship for the Cuban
public.
The directives follow government warnings in the summer that too much energy
was being used and blackouts would follow if consumption was not reduced.
All provincial governments and most state-run offices and factories, which
encompasses 90 percent of Cuba's economic activity, were ordered in June to
reduce energy use by a minimum of 12 percent or face mandatory electricity
cuts.
The measures appeared to resolve the crisis as state-run press published
stories about the amount of energy that had been saved and the dire warnings
died down. The only explanation given for the earlier warnings was that Cuba
was consuming more fuel than the government had money to pay for.
The situation is not as dire as in the 1990s because Cuba receives 93,000
barrels per day of crude oil, almost two-thirds of what it consumes, from
Venezuela. It pays for the oil by providing its energy-rich ally with
medical personnel and other professionals.
Cuba has been grappling with the global economic downturn, which has slashed
revenues from key exports, dried up credit and reduced foreign investment.
The communist-run Caribbean nation also faces stiff U.S. sanctions that
include cutting access to international lending institutions, and it is
still rebuilding from last year's trio of hurricanes that caused an
estimated $10 billion in damages.
In response, the government has cut spending, slashed imports, suspended
many debt payments and frozen bank accounts of foreign businesses. It
reported last week that trade was down 36 percent so far this year due
mainly to a more than 30 percent reduction in imports.
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Anyone know if Infidel, The Chicken Plucker and his brother Raul, The Runty
ever solved the toilet paper shortage in this workers socialist paradise?
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims
may be the most oppressive." - C.S. Lewis
"Free-market capitalism is a network of free and voluntary exchanges in
which producers work, produce, and exchange their products for the products
of others through prices voluntarily arrived at." -- Murray N. Rothbard
No Surrender!
Dionysus