Clinton, Gore Move to Release Oil

Re “Clinton Taps Oil Reserves to Ease Shortage,” Sept. 23:

What a sorry thing it is to hear about the projected use of our Strategic Petroleum Reserve to satisfy a small inconvenience. Our executive and legislative departments would be wiser to cut the speed limit to 55 mph if necessary, go back to the program demanding the fleet average of 30 miles per gallon (or more) be met by the automobile manufacturers and ask the public to close off a few rooms when heating or air-conditioning homes and places of business.

We who were young during World War II remember the rationing of fuel for cars at three gallons per week; lights were dimmed to save fuel and the speed limit reduced to 35 mph. The world’s fossil fuel shortage is not going to improve, and the U.S. will eventually be at the mercy of countries who refer to us as the “Ugly Americans” on one hand and hold us at ransom on the cost of oil on the other.

HERBERT BUCK

Cerritos

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Al Gore will apparently do and say anything to gain the presidency (Sept. 22). His call to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was simply a dangerous political maneuver.

The strategic oil reserves are there to serve the U.S. in time of a national emergency. A rise in oil costs is not a national emergency; it is simply a natural response to the laws of supply and demand. Tapping the reserves is a definite risk to our national security, maybe not a high risk, but a risk nonetheless. For Gore to risk the security of this nation for his own benefit is just another example of the lack of integrity shown by the current administration and its heir apparent.

CHARLES MOORE

Glendale

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So the big oil ticket of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney opposes using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try to increase supply and reduce the price of home heating oil. Are they concerned about national security, or just their own?

M.J. JOHNSON

San Luis Obispo

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How about if we tap our knowledge reserves and really tackle the problem: our dependence on oil. If the auto makers would produce SUVs with better gas mileage and if the lawmakers would finally set a national policy of alternative fuels and higher efficiency, maybe we wouldn’t have to listen to quick fixes like depleting our strategic oil reserves. Stop the political pandering and stop our demand addiction. It’s the gas mileage, stupid.

KEN DOMER

Orange

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I find it ironic that Bush made a statement regarding the oil reserves, that “they should not be used for short-term political gain at the cost of long-term national security,” when he is willing to spend the money in the budget surplus rather than put a majority of it in the Social Security fund, which is supposed to run out in 2037. The 30 million barrels of oil are supposed to be replaced next year. Bush does not have a plan to replace the money that could be put in the Social Security fund. His across-the-board tax cut would benefit one of his friends making $3 million a year, more than the average American making $30,000.

Gov. Bush should look in the mirror when making the statement of using “short-term political gain at the cost of long-term national security.”

GORDON W. WONG

Los Angeles