Letter: U.S. must reduce reliance on oil

Monday, May 2, 2005 | 9:22 a.m.

The high price of gasoline has no quick fix. The costs will only go up.

Most experts agree that peak oil production will happen by 2008 and maybe by next year. The rising demand will exceed the supply. Drilling and refineries will not overcome the demand. Even building nuclear electric plants to help would require 1,200 new facilities.

Not only will high prices damage our economy but another cost will be the terrible wars to be fought for the precious resource. We have already burned up 100,000 Iraqis in our gas tanks, but the next time we will not have to lie about it. The warring countries really will have weapons of mass destruction.

Another cost of our cheap oil economy is the effect of global warming on our environment. If 2,000 scientists say global warming is happening, that is balance. If Exxon-Mobil spends $8 million to say otherwise, that's propaganda. The only question is the extent of the damage that will be done.

If humans are to function above the level of dinosaurs, we need to put aside politics, greed and denial. Conservation and alternative fuels are our only hope. Even then it will be difficult, as we have built an oil-squandering society that has destroyed communities and made us dependent upon the automobile. Yet, without immediate action, the 21st century could become a Dark Age for our children.

JERRY BITTS