Letters to the editor

OPINION:

The oil conundrum

In the early 1940s, gasoline was being sold in some service stations for 11 cents per gallon. Jumping ahead to 2008, oil is being sold for more than $120 per barrel and gasoline is nearing $4 per gallon. What is the solution?

Some in our government think the gasoline tax should be raised; others think we should raise the number of miles per gallon new automobiles are able to achieve. Still others are advocating more wind power, electrical power, nuclear power, etc. Few are advocating more refineries and oil drilling even though we are reminded constantly that we have trillions of untapped barrels of oil in undeveloped reserves.

How long are we going to be subjected to the whims of oil-producing countries that can keep raising the price at every turn we take to reduce demand? It is about time for the U.S. to mobilize its resources, stop playing games and capitalize on the market value. Let’s start building refineries and drilling new and untapped oil reserves. Let’s use the windfall profits to pay off our national debt, develop alternative energy sources and tell the tinhorn dictators who are holding us ransom to their pseudo-power based on their one source of influence to go drink from the sea — or oil wells, as they might prefer.

H.E. BUTTS

Leesburg, Va.

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Wendell Cox’s “Energy need rises” (Op-Ed, Monday) makes a strong case that demand for energy will increase. However, Daniel L. Davis’ May 5 Op-Ed column, “The coming crisis,” makes an equally strong case that oil production soon will enter decline.

If demand rises and supply falls, something has to give. That something is price. The price increases we have experienced recently are just the beginning.

Pumping our way out can’t be a long-term strategy. Every barrel we burn today won’t be available for our children. A drilling spree now could result in a higher peak followed by a faster decline, which is not in our best interests.

The only way to reduce oil prices is to drive down demand faster than depletion shrinks supply. I think this is very unlikely — without the price signal to force lower consumption, we would have to use a heavy-handed regulatory approach to achieve energy savings.

However, using price to drive down consumption has an equally severe drawback: We are sending our wealth overseas, in many cases to countries that don’t particularly like us.

There is a better way. We should shift taxes off of income and payroll and onto fossil fuels. Though the cost of oil would go up, so would our take-home pay.

The overall tax burden would remain the same, but instead of encouraging people not to work, we would encourage people to conserve energy. Higher energy prices are coming, like it or not. Better to capture that price increase in our own economy via a tax shift.

CARL HENN

Rockville

Eucharist protected?

Regarding your article “Pro-choice politicians take papal Communion” (Page 1, Friday), I was discouraged to learn that Sens. John Kerry, Christopher J. Dodd and Edward M. Kennedy and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi received Holy Communion during the papal Mass. The Eucharist is protected in the sanctuary with lock and key. The Church teaches that no one may receive the Eucharist unworthily, yet fainthearted clergymen allow these defiant heretics to publicly receive Holy Communion.

When confronted with this mockery of the Eucharist, Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl responded that the decision to refuse Holy Communion should be made by the bishops or priests in the home dioceses. In other words, it’s not his job. How embarrassing. Because Archbishop Wuerl refuses to use his authority to boldly defend the Eucharist, lay Catholics are left to believe that all visiting public heretics are welcome to receive Holy Communion in the Washington Archdiocese as long as their home dioceses don’t mind.

Messrs. Kerry, Dodd and Kennedy and Mrs. Pelosi are not merely pro-abortion; they ensure that abortions occur. They are abortion facilitators and enablers. Proudly, they defy the Church and Church teaching while the archbishop defers to others. Again, how embarrassing. See Titus 2:15: “Declare these things; exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.” May God have mercy on Archbishop Wuerl.

STEVEN GRIST

Herndon , Va.

Churchill’s failings

“The realist and the utopian,” a review by Earnest W. Lefever (Books, Sunday) of Arthur Herman’s “Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age,” fails to mention the role of Churchill in the tragic death of 3 million Indians in 1943 under the British colonial rule.

Churchill may have saved England from the Nazis, but he is held responsible by many Indians for malign neglect in the great Bengal famine of 1943. Churchill is far from a hero.

ANUPAM SRIVASTAV

Albany, N.Y.

Israel’s birthday

Mark Steyn’s Monday Commentary column, “And many more to come,” is an outstanding retort to those who predict Israel’s demise. As he points out, Richard Cohen, columnist at The Washington Post, believes “Israel itself is a mistake.” To the contrary, I believe the creation of Israel was divine intervention. As the saying goes, “It is better to light one candle than curse the dark.” A democratic Israel is the candle in the midst of the darkness of dictatorships and repression in the Middle East. If wealth were the sole source of success and enlightenment, the unprecedented transfer of Western wealth to the Arab states for oil should put those states at the top of the list for success and enlightenment. Instead, they are bereft of a free exchange of ideas among their citizens and rely on one commodity for wealth, which is solely controlled by the government.

One important measure of a successful society, in which citizens enjoy freedom, is the number of patents awarded. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the combined number of patents awarded pre-1994 to 2007 to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar and Kuwait is 549. The number of patents awarded to Israel in that same period of time is 15,868. The candles will shine brightly on Israel’s birthday cakes long after I’m gone because extinguishing freedom and intelligence will take a lot more than whining by repressive regimes wallowing in oil, pity and jealousy.

JOSEPH R. FARRELL

Alexandria

Concern from Jewish voters

I am both surprised and appalled that Jewish voters would favor Barack Obama by a 61 percent to 32 percent margin against John McCain, considering the background not only of the Democratic candidate, but also of his advisers. Certainly any well-informed Jewish voter concerned about the security of the state of Israel and its continued existence would be foolhardy to place that nation’s fate in the hands of Mr. Obama’s foreign-policy advisers even less so considering the candidate’s previous associations with not only anti-Israel but even anti-Semitic individuals.

One can understand that with this background, Hamas has enthusiastically endorsed Mr. Obama’s candidacy. I am expecting the same from the leaders of Iran, based on Mr. Obama’s eagerness to meet with them to understand their grievances.

I am ashamed to say that many of my fellow Jews, including friends and relatives, have informed me that they will vote for Mr. Obama. Does this mean that they have a death wish for Israel on the 60th anniversary of the founding of that nation?

NELSON MARANS

Silver Spring