Dear Congressman Wu (and Senator Smith and Senator Wyden):
Today President Bush called upon Congress to allow a vast expansion of oil drilling in the United States, especially in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off our coastlines. I am calling on you as a citizen and a constituent to refuse to listen to this short-sighted and foolish idea.
I am, like practically all Americans, very concerned about the explosive increase in gas prices. They’ve risen over $1 a gallon just since the beginning of this year, and over $2 per gallon in the seven and a half years since George Bush took office. The President claims permitting more drilling in presently protected areas will ease gas prices. This simply is not true, especially when you consider that any oil supplies from new drilling will not be available for many years.
The President says that the high price of oil makes drilling offshore and in ANWR, as well as opening up fields of oil shale in Colorado and elsewhere, a profitable enterprise. Yet he also says it will reduce oil prices. He can’t have it both ways.
The President talks also about a long-term solution to our energy problems. His long-term solution is no solution at all — it merely encourages us to remain dependent on an energy source which is becoming increasingly rare, expensive, and environmentally disastrous to acquire. A genuine long-term solution to our energy problems is one that involves reducing our energy consumption and promoting non-polluting, renewable energy sources.
As the Congress considers the energy problems faced by our nation, I call upon you to seek answers that will benefit not just a few, at a cost which will ultimately be paid by all of us on Earth; but rather ones that will benefit everyone and contribute toward making the United States and the world a better and healthier place.