High price of gas is bitter but necessary pill

Jerry Bitts, Las Vegas

Monday, July 21, 2008 | 2:05 a.m.

I think the high price of gas is wonderful. I wish it would go to $6 a gallon. Perhaps then our citizens would demand a crash program to develop alternative energy.

Our best science shows that global warming is real, that human-caused pollution contributes to it, and that we are nearing a point of no return where warming cannot be controlled. Republicans, Democrats and oil company executives will all be negatively affected, so everyone must work together to save our civilization.

What stands in our way is the shortsighted and self-serving political propaganda that supports more supply-side production of fossil fuels.

The United States does import most of its oil, but most of that oil comes from Canada in an unending stream. Our dependence on Canadian oil does not cause terrorism.

What does promote terrorism is our military occupation of Middle Eastern countries for the purpose of controlling their oil resources. The biggest problem our government now has with Iraq is to get it to pass an oil law that will give obscene profits to American and British companies. Further, Iraqi oil is of high quality and easily extracted, so why would these oil giants want to do the expensive work of extracting oil from the United States?

The greatest threat to our security is not terrorism but the changing environment.

As shortsighted as people are, we can always rationalize that there are simple answers, so the energy companies must be brought into the alternative fuel program with the aid of both parties. That would require a forward-thinking president and Congress. That or having gas prices go up to $8 a gallon.