Nebraska professor, colleagues examine energy future of Cuba

Posted by Elena del Valle on January 7, 2011

What does the future hold for Cuba now that its famous leader has taken a back seat? Energy resources that allow the Caribbean island nation to improve its economy may be increasingly important in the future and may affect the United States. This is the belief of Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, a professor of political science at the University of Nebraska Omaha, and editor of Cuba’s Energy Future Strategic Approaches to Cooperation (Brookings Institution Press, $26.95), a recently published book.

In addition to Benjamin-Alvarado, Jorge Piñon, senior research fellow at Florida International University; Juan A.B. Belt, director of Chemonics International; Amy Myers Jaffe, Wallace S.Wilson Fellow in Energy Studies, Rice University; and Ronald Soligo, Rice scholar, Rice University contributed to the 143-page softcover book.

Benjamin-Alvarado is assistant director of the Office of Latino/Latin American Studies. He is also senior research associate of the Center for International Trade and Security at the University of Georgia. He is the author of Power to the People: Energy and the Cuban Nuclear Program.