Oil reserves not being tapped

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), May 25, 2008

Kristina Johnson's op-ed (My View, May 22) was more propaganda than opinion. The current Senate energy bill produces nothing. When Sen. Patrick Leahy accused oil executives of not letting the free market operate, the oil executives told him there is no free market because organizations like the Sierra Club and the Senate have stopped all new domestic drilling.

We have vast reserves of oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off our coasts, not to mention trillions of tons of oil shale. But the eco-fundamentalists, who are even more dangerous than the religious fundamentalists, litigate against any domestic drilling. Ms. Johnson and Harry Reid may think we have scant oil reserves, but foreign governments such as China don't think so. They have come halfway around the world to drill off our coasts. How do they answer that?

Ron Russell

Salt Lake City