Published: June 23, 2008 05:07 pm            

Letter to the Editor, June 23, 2008

Dear Editor,

The exchange between presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama on reducing gas prices in America caught my attention. For the first time it appears we have someone ready to actually do something that will benefit all Americans; not just a special interest group.

It’s important that we first understand that Americans consume more than 20.6 million barrels of oil every day. Out of that total we only produce 8.3 million barrels and import 12.3 million barrels. That means that we are paying foreign oil producers more than $1.6 billion a day and more than $618 billion a year for oil. Which presidential hopeful is determined to turn this around?

Democratic presumptive nominee Barack Obama continues to insist that investments must be focused on renewable energy possibilities for the future, and that any investment in tapping the vast oil resources available to America is a waste of time and money. He asserts that expanding oil drilling and refining won’t do anything to reduce gas prices for at least five years. I wonder how far out in the future we’ll see gas prices drop from the continued investment in renewable energy research?

It also seems apparent that Obama doesn’t see a problem in continuing to pay $618 billion a year to foreign oil producers while this research continues at the expense of Americans at the gas pump.

The presumptive Republican nominee John McCain appears to see the need for immediate action to reverse the skyrocketing price of gasoline in the country.

Since it’s clear to me that the primary factor in the ridiculous rise in crude oil prices is speculation, increasing oil production in our own country will drive down the price of crude oil as we depend less on foreign oil imports. Simple supply and demand economics says that as we produce more of our own oil, we will significantly reduce oil imports and keep more American money in our own country. Incidentally, keeping more of our money here also increases the value of the dollar in the world – cha-ching!

I don’t doubt that McCain agrees with continued investment in renewable energy research, but the more immediate need for Americans is to bring down the cost of gasoline and diesel at the pump. That doesn’t require more research; it only requires the 535 elected senators and representatives in Washington D.C. to get on board with allowing more drilling wherever the oil can be found and encouraging the expansion of refineries.

In November we’re going to make one of the most important decisions we ever make as adults; we’ll cast our vote for the next President of the United States. I just hope we don’t let our decision to be influenced by a silver tongue or silver hair. We need a president that will lead with strength and determination to the benefit of all Americans, and who will champion statesmanship rather than partisanship in the White House. I personally think that John McCain is our best hope to realize those expectations.

(Oil consumption, production, and import data taken from http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/country/index.cfm)

Dennis Heath

Stonewall

        

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