Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008 | 2:01 a.m.
This is in reply to Pete Karnoski’s Sunday letter to the editor and his comment about how drilling for oil in our waters and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would eventually drop oil prices.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s own estimate, that won’t happen until 2017, and even then it would not have a significant impact on oil prices because of ever-increasing demand.
Second, unless Congress enacts a law prohibiting U.S. oil companies from selling oil recovered from those pristine areas on the world market, thus getting top price, the chance Americans will benefit from lower prices at the pump will be further reduced.
It seems more logical for American oil companies to pump the same amount of money into alternative energy as it would take to expand drilling for oil in protected areas, which would very likely be even more expensive in the future, and would be like taking one step forward and two steps back.
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