Moderately Higher Oil Prices Would Spur Domestic Industry, Ease Need for Imports

We can’t believe this! You’ve actually found an economist (Philip Verleger) who thinks that the only solution to our multifaceted oil affliction is drilling in the Alaskan Arctic Wild Life Refuge and the California offshore leases.

Our lack of an energy policy is criminal; our legislators have responded only to narrow American oil, automobile and highway interests. It is also the source of many of the nation’s (and the world’s) greatest problems: economic, environmental and societal.

The impacts of our bizarre over-consumption of gasoline have spilled over, creating problems for our allies as well. The OPEC cartel is propped up by every purchase we make at the gas pump; each time we fill up we vote for another Exxon Valdez event.

Our energy non-policy has placed the United States and its allies between the hands of Saddam Hussein and the insanities of the Middle East. There is an escape from our self-imposed energy dilemma, but it is not through drilling in Santa Monica Bay.

There is no alternative to correcting highway sector market forces and permitting them to reduce American automotive dependence. We do that by increasing the federal fuel tax by 50 cents per gallon, with significant increases each year, say 25 cents a gallon per year until the tax reaches $3.50 (which is about the cost the motorist imposes on the community). Only then will we be free of oil imports and the related problems.

STANLEY HART

Chairman, Transportation Committee Sierra Club--Angeles Chapter