The Bill’s Coming Due: The High Price of Relying on Saudi Oil

Re “The Vanishing Mirage of Saudi Oil,” Commentary, June 27: Michael Klare writes, “Only if we act now ... can we face the ‘twilight’ of the Petroleum Age with some degree of hope.” In the same edition we read that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan for solar panels is criticized as being “so expensive that it’s not cost-effective.”

Which of these perspectives is correct?

If Klare is correct, then the cost of energy is going to make solar panels very much cost-effective.

It also puts into question California’s policy of encouraging new freeways.

If the cost of gasoline doubles, how many people will be able to afford to drive on these freeways, including the ones that are now in operation?

As demand outstrips production, it is inevitable that the price of energy, in whatever form, will increase dramatically. It seems to me that Schwarzenegger’s plan is just a start.

Karl Reitz

Brea

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I am amazed that the revelations in the article on Saudi oil haven’t caused more of a stir. If investment banker Matthew R. Simmons’ well-researched conclusions about the Saudis’ exaggerated claims for oil reserves are true, this country is in for a world of trouble.

Our nation’s energy planners have been taken in by the bragging and denial of Saudi officials and have led us down the road to ruin. The oil price increases we have seen so far will seem like nothing compared to what will happen when the realization hits that the production increases we are counting on aren’t going to happen.

The latest projections published by our government show Saudi Arabia contributing 31.5 million barrels a day in 2025. Impossible!

It is up to the news media to dig into the facts and expose the incompetence of our energy planners so we can at least start to acknowledge that we are in a freight train hurtling toward a brick wall.

Thank you for publishing this article, but we need much more digging. Please!

Thomas R. Blakeslee

Venice