Published: July 31, 2008 05:03 pm            

LETTERS: Don’t reward big oil

Don’t reward big oil

It’s amazing to me how President Bush and those cozy with the oil companies could propose that we open up public lands and offshore sites to new oil drilling.

Let me get this right. We are supposed to reward the companies, currently ripping us off, by letting them come onto public lands, take our oil, pollute our assets, then sell our own oil back to us at inflated prices? These are the first companies in history to reap a greater profit when the price of their raw materials has risen. Has the American public become so brainwashed as to buy into such a ludicrous fleecing of our resources?

I have a better idea. Create a United States Oil Authority. Kick the current oil profiteers off all our public lands and let a company created and owned by the American people have the sole right to remove oil from our public lands. Then let it be sold on the free market in direct competition against the big oil companies and O.P.E.C. I’m not talking about nationalizing the current oil companies or changing the way they operate a bit. I’m talking about us as Americans taking back control of something we already own. In this way, our elected representatives decide on the pay scale for our oil company executives. Pressure from oil company lobbyists to wantonly open up new drilling sites would disappear. If I do get ripped off at the gas pump, the money goes into the national treasury or to a well-paid employee which our nation needs right now.

Lastly, let O.P.E.C. and big oil compete against us, “We The People,” and inject a little realism into the equation, then if we ever do have a real terrorism threat, our government has a firm grasp on a large share of our oil supply. If the Democrats and Republicans cannot say no to big oil, maybe we need a third party that can.

George W. Reece

Youngstown

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.