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Oil crisis is our own fault

3 min read

To the editor:

We hope that everyone read Cal Thomas’ column in Friday’s (May 16) paper. Here we are sitting on billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas and yet we import most of our oil and gas. That is like planting millions of acres of wheat, and not allowing the farmers to reap it because we don’t like the combines fouling our air with the noise and exhaust, so we import our food.

We are all for environmentalists. They have opened our eyes to the fact that we are responsible for our planet and should be aware of the footprint we leave. But having said that, it occurred to us that if the environmentalists had been around when the automobile was invented, we’d be driving a horse and buggy.

What are we thinking? If we imported, from the Middle East, twice the oil that we do now, we could not make more gasoline because we do not have the capacity in our refineries. As Mr. Thomas said in his article, our gas production has fallen 40 percent since 1985, but consumption has risen by 30 percent. Until we realize that we have to tap into our own energy sources, and build more refineries, we will continue to pay a high price for our gas.

And the spectacle of the president of the most powerful country in the world going to the leader of the country that is the most involved in spreading a radical view of Islam and begging him to increase his oil production is shameful. Why should they, when they are getting such a high price for the oil they are pumping? If we don’t want to dirty our hands producing our own oil, why should they accommodate us? And if we produced our own oil it would cut down on the money our enemies use to kill our troops.

The unfortunate side of this is that we should have been building the infrastructure years ago. It will take years to get things moving. But until Congress starts getting serious about the energy “crisis,” of our own making, and comes to grips with the fact that the oil companies have the technology to drill environmentally and build environmentally safe refineries, we will be paying higher and higher gas prices.

Get a hold of Mr. Thomas’ article and read it and you will see that “We are the cause of our own oil crisis.”

Bill and Doris Heyns

Cape Coral