The Continuing High Oil Price Dilemma

To the Editor:

Here we are on the threshold of summer and oil prices are going sky high with no relief in sight. Washington seems helpless and at the complete mercy of the oil cartel with profits soaring within the industry.

Oil company spokesmen are trying to consol us by saying the $20 and $30 a barrel oil that we were used to was artificially low and that $60 and maybe $70 oil is the way of the future. Unfortunately, no one in Washington, including the President, wants to challenge that. So where does that leave us?

Right now the only possible answer for immediate relief is tapping the oil reserves. Some people, including the President, say that the reserves are for emergencies only and must not be touched. Well, in my opinion, this is an emergency and one that is growing in intensity. The reserves should be tapped. Several years ago, when faced with this same problem, two of our past presidents, Bush and Clinton, both saw fit to do just that, and guess what, oil prices came down almost immediately.

If the government won’t act on this problem, which is only going to intensify as winter approaches with heating oil already being mentioned at well over $2 a gallon, maybe the public will just have to take matters into their own hands and start to curtail usage. This would increase oil and gas inventories and probably drive prices down. Another possibility would be to establish a weekly, dry gas day. That would cause some heads to turn, and if it caught on, across the country, it could be devastating to the oil marketers.

As in most cases, when the American people get fed up, usually something good comes out of it. I don’t know about you, but I’m fed up and ready to act, are you?

Robert B. Shaw

10 Stone Fence Lane, Newtown                                      June 28, 2005