In response to the letter by Ron Lowe of Santa Monica, Calif., in the April 10 edition, let's get some facts straight. The "Wascally Wepublicans" and the last election had nothing to do with the increase of the cost of a barrel of crude oil. At the time of the election, crude had dropped from a high of nearly $75 to below $50 a barrel. Now it has risen again to the mid $60's range. Of course, the price of gasoline has followed.
If you, or any one you know, doesn't understand the basic fact of the economics of supply and demand, it's about time you took off the blinders and took Economics 101. Whenever a commodity is in short supply, the price goes up and conversely, when the supply is abundant, it goes down.
Crude oil availability in the world is in short supply. The key word is "available" crude. The fact of the matter is the known reserve is not short and keeps getting bigger. Our problem is we, the U.S., have not keep up with the domestic demand by drilling for new domestic sources and we need desperately to do that. We have allowed ourselves to be held hostage by less than friendly adversarial nations. We are faced with environmental restrictions that we have placed on ourselves and it is sad but true that the shortage is due to extreme, unnecessary restriction on our exploration and development of domestic supplies. I refer you to the article by David Holcberg printed in the Pioneer just a few weeks ago.
We need to develop the potential of ANWR and the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico. If we don't do that, and damn soon, we will all pay the price of energy shortage and higher prices. Crude oil is not just gasoline, it is in every aspect of your daily life. There are over 5,000 byproducts of crude oil: plastics, poly fibers, medications, production of steel, detergents, fertilizers, paper, ink, glue and the list goes on and on. Additionally, of course, all the energy used in the transportation industry, to market all of these necessities of life, which come from crude oil.
Our life, as we know it, would be vastly different and not for the good if we don't keep up with the necessary production of crude oil.
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Robert J. Stanton
Bemidji
