Energy Plan Caters to Wealthy Oil Interests

Re “Bush Energy Plan Seeks More Nuclear Power, Aid for Poor,” May 17: Am I the only one who can see through this gasoline and energy crisis sham? President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are birds of a feather and clearly are looking out for their special interests and corporate greed. They have made it very plain that they have no intentions of stopping this whole charade, as Bill Clinton would have done long ago.

None of the games being played by the power and gasoline companies would have gotten this far had we had a good man to stand up for the people and not cater to the wealthy, as the Bush administration continues to do. They are taking us--the American people--for a very expensive ride.

Jeanne Stacks

Mission Viejo

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Only in California, a state controlled by two Democratic senators, a Democratic governor and Democrat-controlled state Assembly and Senate, can we blame Republicans for the energy problems here. I am tired of reading about how it is Bush’s Texas friends who are gouging the market when we ourselves put us in this spot by listening to wacky environmentalists on how we can’t have power plants, we can’t have oil drilling off the coast. Stop listening to the tree huggers and build plants already!

Robert Williams

Hawthorne

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I never thought it would happen. After 70 years, two oilmen, from Texas and Wyoming, have made me ready to join an anti-nuclear protest.

I’m not happy with the idea of drilling for oil on public lands, mining carbon-dioxide-producing coal or lowering environmental standards, but increasing nuclear power generation has crossed the line. Now I’m willing to join the picket lines--except, of course, in Texas and Wyoming.

Ronald Roston

West Covina

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First of all, we don’t have a crude oil supply problem, as Bush proclaims. We have an under-capacity oil refining problem. The oil refinery industry, by choice, has not built gasoline and heating oil processing facilities with the knowledge that shortages create and cause drastic price increases.

Look at the last-quarter profits as evidence. The shortages have produced enormous profits for them at consumers’ expense. As for crude oil, the world market is and will be a valuable supplier. Importantly, it relieves us from exhausting our own reserves. Given the momentum of approved drilling in the Alaska wildlife preserve, what state will be next? Will Californians expect to see the westerly setting sun up and down our coast through the legs of oil drilling derricks? Bush’s energy policy could demand it.

Ken Johnson

Pinon Hills

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Oh, please. All the plaintive whining about high gas prices! If Al Gore were president now, people would be hailing this development as a positive policy wrought by their fearless leader to promote conservation. Isn’t this just what Gore wanted, the demise of the combustion engine? Pay up, people, and support Gore!

Kimberly Ferguson

North Hollywood

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Paul Josephson (“A Swiftian Solution to the Energy Crisis,” May 17) no doubt thought that his satire would demolish the arguments in favor of Bush’s energy plan. Josephson suggests building all the nuclear power plants in Wyoming except for 50 reactors he would put in west Texas.

My reaction to his ignorant bombast is: OK! If his plan ever went into effect, Wyoming would be in control of all the Luddites in California. Texas has already built a huge energy-producing infrastructure, unlike California, and electricity prices there are rock-bottom.

When the last major employer in California has packed up and moved to Texas--or Wyoming if the Josephson plan were carried out--they won’t have to turn out the lights. Gray Davis has already done so.

Michael T. Kennedy

Mission Viejo