CIAO DATE: 08/2014
July 2014
The Obama administration must quickly adopt a range of transformative policies to avoid an energy crisis in the Caribbean and Central America, given the possibility that Venezuela's financial support for energy imports to the region could erode quickly, according to the Atlantic Council's Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center's new report titled Uncertain Energy: The Caribbean's Gamble with Venezuela. While a long-term plan toward renewables is a laudable goal, the first step is to embrace a conversion of the region's dependence on costly high-carbon fuels to natural gas, allowing the Caribbean region to alleviate its dependence on Venezuelan crude oil and petroleum products. The United States should consider declaring the export of natural gas and crude oil to the Caribbean in the national interest to accelerate commercial attention to the region.
Resource link: Uncertain Energy: The Caribbean's Gamble with Venezuela [PDF] - 984K