To the Editor:

If the polls are accurate, the No. 1 issue for voters this year is the economy with the high cost of energy. The main reason fuel prices are increasing is that worldwide supply has not kept pace with demand. U.S. oil production has fallen 40 percent since 1985 and our consumption has increased by more than 30 percent. The last refinery built in America was 32 years ago. Congress has repeatedly blocked efforts to build more refineries, expand capacity and/or increase our oil production at home, while expecting foreign governments to incrrease their production to supply our needs.

We import 12 million barrels of oil per day, at today’s cost of $130 per barrel this amounts to $156 billion a day we are sending to other countries. Many with dictatorships that underwrite an extreme form of Islam that is out to kill us.

According to government estimates there is enough oil in areas accessible to America to power 60 million cars for 60 years. Eighty-five percent of the available offshore oil is off limits. In 1995, after Congress passed a bill to allow exploration in a small portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, President Clinton vetoed it. If this project had been allowed, we would now be receiving an estimated 1 million barrels of oil a day! This would not only reduce prices at the pump, it would have kept $130 million per day (at today’s prices) in our own economy, and produce many jobs at home. We can’t drill our way out of our addiction to oil, but we could make the transition to other energy sources easier. We must be willing to use our own resources.

What has Congress been doing to address our energy/economy situation? They have had time to have hearings on the steroid problem in baseball and the salaries of top oil company executives. Given that the nine largest private oil companies hold less than 5 percent of the entire world’s proven oil reserves, and that Congress has voted not to allow taking energy resources on 95 percent of our federal lands, Congress is more responsible for manipulating oil prices than the oil executives they were questioning.

Congress should be addressing ways to keep companies in business by reducing regulations, litigation and taxes. They should make the Bush tax cut permanent, cut federal spending, and the economy will be just fine.

Roy Densberger

John Day