Administration’s Watered-Down Energy Plan

So the Bush Administration has gutted the proposal of the Department of Energy designed to reduce the nation’s reliance upon oil, thereby prolonging the mindless Reagan policy of open contempt for any kind of conservation (“Bush Aides Kill Tough Measures in Energy Plan,” front page, Dec. 29). Apparently nothing must be allowed to curtail the profligacy of our daily lives. It may be bad for business. We must continue to drive at high speeds in our gas guzzlers, we must not indulge in any serious public efforts to develop alternative sources of energy, and we must continue to inflict incalculable ecological and human damage on pristine sections of Alaska, or upon any other potential source of oil.

Do these people really know what they are doing? Do they actually prefer, despite every warning, to squander tens of thousands of young American lives, more easily done, to be sure, since a disproportionate share of these is drawn from the lower end of the economic scale, rather than search for methods to reduce our addiction to oil? The answer, thus far, is yes. They do so prefer and they do it without shame or remorse. Theirs is a continuation of an irrational and morally bankrupt policy passed along from the Reagan years. If this were a movie, it would be X-rated.

KRAMER J. ROHFLEISCH, La Mesa