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Editor, Index-Tribune:
The governor and California’s government must do more to lower gasoline prices within the state, provide more stable and adequate supplies and create an environment in which gasoline prices within California are consistently at or close to the national average.
The recent act of encouraging the early production and sale of winter gasoline blends in the state is a small step in the right direction. A great deal more should be done for economic health of the state and for California families and gasoline consumers.
For too long, Californians have paid significantly higher gasoline prices than people in the rest of the country. That is unfair to Californians, and it’s unnecessary. Reasonable and significantly lower gasoline prices can co-exist with strong, effective and health-ensuring environmental laws, rules and regulations, throughout the state. What is California’s government doing to lower gasoline prices and promote construction of new, environmentally-appropriate refining capacity in the state?
Bruce Stern
Sonoma
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New refineries plus Bakken shale oil and gas equals tens of thousands more jobs, lower gas and fuel costs, and a potential systemic switch to clean natural gas as the primary vehicle fuel since we now have almost 200 years of proven reserves.
Selfish nimbys, anti-human environmentalists, and monopolistic oil tyrannies around the world will never let it happen as long as they can have it their way though.
The problem is the Green movement in this state is so
strong that we do not allow gasoline to come across
our borders from other states. Why? It is because of
the special blend of fuel that is used here. This
fuel is a higher oxygenated (and lower in sulphur)
blend that does burn cleaner but costs more to produce.
Heck, the state gov't just has to get out of the way and let horizontal drilling take place here privately. There is a formation in the central valley that is estimated to be larger than even the Bakken field. We could once again be a net energy producing state if legal and regulatory restrictions on production are removed, or at least modified to allow robust production rather than curtail production.
I'm quite optimistic that people will come around.
Heck, the state gov't just has to get out of the way and let horizontal drilling take place here privately. There is a formation in the central valley that is estimated to be larger than even the Bakken field. We could once again be a net energy producing state if legal and regulatory restrictions on production are removed, or at least modified to allow robust production rather than curtail production.
I'm quite optimistic that people will come around.
Could not agree more Phineas!! The drilling techniques
used today are so advanced that they require very little
land in the process of getting the oil. I think Romney
should be hammering Obama on Domestic Energy production.
Obama said back in 2008 that he would utilize more of
our resources which would help us tell OPEC to, "take a
hike". Obama dropped the ball as I knew he would. Democrats
will say they are for more oil but it is just talk. If
you press them on WHERE we can drill they don't have an
answer. And that is because they are not realy interested
in more oil.