America’s oil reserves are huge, accessible

Re: “No quick energy fixes, despite officials’ promises,” June 10

Irwin Stelzer is rightly disappointed in politicians who “prefer to keep Alaska safe for caribou rather than tap our own oil reserves.” America remains the only oil-producing nation that severely limits its own production.

Federal law currently prohibits tapping about 10 billion barrels of oil in the barren tundra of Alaska and another 16 billion barrels off the coasts.  It also prevents utilizing the largest known oil shale deposits in the world, which are found in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. 

The RAND Corporation estimates that between 500 billion to 1.1 trillion recoverable barrels of oil can be found in the shale of the Green River formation, making it the largest known fossil fuel deposit in the world.

With demand for energy skyrocketing and supply subject to incessant instability, we have a clear imperative to develop this untapped and readily obtainable supply of American oil.

Reece Epstein

Research associate

The National Center for Public Policy Research

More drilling won’t solve America’s energy crisis

Re: “Drill here, drill now,” Editorial, June 13

If we had taken The Examiner’s advice to drill more in the 1970s, we would have imported less oil, but we would have exactly that much less left in America today. We should count former President Jimmy Carter’s windfall profits tax and the ban on ANWR drilling as victories — we were able to keep from burning our reserves in the pre-peak oil, cheap energy era.

The poll numbers you cite showing rising support for ANWR drilling means that such drilling will come. Despite your denial, we can’t drill our way out of our energy problems. We are now at — or very near — the peak of global oil production. The alleged vast oil reserves in the Bakken Formation are unlikely to produce as much as optimists claim.

If our politicians are smart, they will only lift the ban on ANWR drilling as part of a meaningful compromise that moves us forward on energy efficiency and renewable energy.

A compromise to open up ANWR to production should dedicate the profits to renewable energy deployment, include a reduction in the national speed limit, impose taxes on gas guzzlers with proceeds devoted to transit, and require insurance companies to sell distance-based auto insurance.

High energy prices are here to stay. We must now come up with ways to maintain a healthy economy with less energy.

Carl Henn

Rockville

Russert rose above pettiness of most political journalists

Re: “Mourning the ‘explainer in chief,’ ” June 14

Tim Russert was a giant among journalists and among humankind. When I heard the tiny, pretentious, smug “journalists” praise Russert, what stuck in my mind was the reference one of the little big shots made to “accountability.” These self-indulgent weepers of crocodile tears wouldn’t know accountability if it hit them over the head with a hammer.

Watching the mass lamentation that passed for eulogy, I realized that the highest praise that I can bestow upon Russert’s memory is that he was nothing like these self-important clowns.

Nathan Dodell

Rockville

Corruption in legal system speaks for itself

Re: “Criticism of legal system is short on facts,” From Readers, June 13

Hey, Kathleen Flynn Peterson, president of the American Association of Justice, did you happen to see Quin Hilyer’s June 13 column? The one about “Crustacean frustration”?

Sounds like an out-of-control legal system to me. But fortunately there’s redress: Round up the 11th Circuit Court judges and federal court prosecutors, tar, feather, and set them adrift in Mobile Bay. Perhaps they’ll end up in Honduras. Fitting.

And, as I’m sure you’d agree, just as well.

Dwight Allen

Springfield