Cheap oil has a steep price

Reader Input
-A +A
Les Polette’s letter (Reader Input, Feb. 7) stating that C02 does not cause greenhouse warming goes against massive scientific evidence and observations to the contrary. Unless Les has a degree in a scientific field related to planetary atmospheric studies, or unless he has his own theories that he is willing to debate openly and face-to-face with researchers who have spent their entire lives studying how environmental changes affect climate, his statement only serves to prove that we are still in a “demon-haunted world” where untruths are leading us astray from the energy independence that we desperately need. Les needs to know that it is this kind of unsupported misinformation spread by politically motivated pundits that keeps us from developing a national energy plan. Most of us can agree that we need to stop importation of Middle East oil. The current system has spawned governments run by families of gaudy wealth while their people live in miserable poverty. No wonder so many people do not like us. Meanwhile, multinational oil companies have reaped unimaginable profits. It is cheap foreign oil that makes it all work. U.S. oil is too expensive to produce. It would make gas so expensive that we would all dump our SUV gas-guzzlers for electric or fuel cell cars. That would be a nightmare for oil companies. Only massive government-subsidized operations costing billions if not trillions of tax dollars could develop domestic oil supplies enough to make a dent in oil importation. We, the people of the United States, need to make a choice: more oil along with the climate change and world political chaos baggage that comes with it, or alternative energy use as well as development ASAP. Herb Tanimoto, Cool