Letter: Finding the keys to energy independence

Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2007 | 7:09 a.m.

A Boston Globe editorial, reprinted in the Feb. 2 Las Vegas Sun, calling for the renegotiation of oil drilling contracts and the elimination of tax credits, is the wrong way to go if we are serious about becoming energy independent any time soon.

These excess profits are now being used for new oil and gas development, which offers the only immediate solution to our dependence on foreign oil, other than conservation. The proposed redirection of these funds for research on renewable energy, while laudable, will not get us over the energy crisis in short order. A better way to fund these efforts would be to have additional taxes on gas, as is done in Europe.

As was recently demonstrated when we had $3 a gallon gas, the use of more fuel-efficient cars and reduced driving would result in immediate savings (and also be environmentally friendly). Gas stamps, similar to food stamps, could be issued to those with low incomes.

Such a tax increase, which would increase carpooling, would help fill up the high-occupancy vehicle lanes planned for U.S. 95, Interstate 15 and the Las Vegas Beltway, and also reduce the use of gas by having more people work from home, work four 10-hour days, and reduce discretionary driving. This would require some sacrifice on the part of all of us, but no more than the sacrifices we are asking of our men and women fighting a war in some God-forsaken country halfway around the world.

Henry Schmid, Las Vegas