America Needs Real Leadership

To the Editor:

I would like to respond to Robert E. Shaw’s letter last week about runaway oil prices. While I respect that some people and businesses have a tougher time with high gas prices than others do, I do not agree that President Bush should use the oil reserves to help ease the pain. Oil reserves are for national emergencies, and it’s hard to describe the present situation that way. Even though prices are high, driving behavior is virtually unchanged. When adjusted for inflation, gas prices were much higher in the early 1980s, with no lasting damage to our country that I know of.

There are, however, several things that Bush should do about our energy pricing and supplies. In the anomalous spike in California electricity prices a few years ago, energy-trading companies were making record profits, and Enron was found to be criminally liable. Now the earnings of oil companies are very high. For this near-term spike in oil prices, I would like to know what is causing it, and whether the market is being illegally manipulated.

Our nation faces much bigger energy problems farther down the road. When easily accessible oil reserves run out, there will be huge economic and military threats to us. It is not known whether this will happen 20 years or 50 years, but it will happen. America needs real leadership to address this challenge in an honest way, and not just the politically safe distractions like drilling in Alaska or hydrogen powered cars.

We have seen incredible results in the past when America was mobilized to meet difficult long-term challenges. Examples include putting a man on the moon, cleaning up our air and water (starting in the 1970s), and defeating communism. Establishing new sources of energy and reducing our consumption will take decades to fully realize, but in 20 or 50 years we will be glad we did.

Sincerely,

Peter Van Buskirk

18 Poverty Hollow Road, Newtown                             March 22, 2005