Readers Get a Lot of Mileage Out of Article

Re “The 500-Mile-Per-Gallon Solution,” Commentary, March 24: Max Boot ought to hire a scientific advisor. When he claims mileage figures dependant on plugging into 120-volt outlet to charge batteries, doesn’t he realize that somewhere a petroleum product was burned to create that electricity? It’s as if we get it for nothing.

The same approach goes for the hydrogen-use enthusiasts. They never tell us that hydrogen is generally produced from natural gas, and if they claim we just do an electrolysis of water, they too fail to recognize the source of the electricity.

I’m not surprised that the Alaskans are overwhelmingly for the drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It means more royalty money for every one of them.

Stan Greenfield

Woodland Hills

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Boot notes that the cost of preparing the infrastructure necessary to wean America from oil is estimated by hawkish notables like R. James Woolsey to be $12 billion over the next four years.

As Boot points out, that sounds like a lot of money. Put another way, however, that’s less than one-tenth of what we’ve spent in two years in Iraq, a war fought ostensibly to produce stability in the Mideast, a region made “strategic” by our dependence upon its oil. Priorities are funny things.

Russell Burgos

Thousand Oaks

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Boot needs to be more honest when he says 70% of Alaskans favor drilling for oil.

Under the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend program, the residents of Alaska have received as much as $2,000 a year. Don’t you think that would influence their decision-making?

Mitchell Rabuchin

Lake Balboa

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Reducing dependence on foreign oil is a lot like encouraging people to use public transportation. Most are perfectly happy with the idea of other people buying small, expensive, fuel-efficient vehicles as long as they can continue to use 4-ton military vehicles to carry their bag of groceries.

Rick Damiani

Torrance

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On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy said we would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, but most people didn’t believe it could be done. America pulled together its substantial financial and educational resources to achieve this endeavor.

Now, in the 21st century, why can’t President Bush say, “We shall have a 500-mile-per-gallon solution by the end of the decade”?

Ajay Kaneria

Los Angeles

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Finally someone is actually talking about the here-and-now, real possibility of plug-capable hybrid cars. I understand well the simplicity and symmetry of plugging a car in to “recharge like a cellphone.”

I have driven an all-electric SUV for 3 1/2 years. Plugging in is exactly the reality of my daily life. The coolest part of my personal energy equation, however, is that all of my automotive and household power is generated by the grid-connected solar panels that reside on my home’s roof.

But the car that I lust after, the one that races silently through my dreams at night, is a plug-in hybrid electric car; a car that will give me the option of driving in 100% electric mode or internal-combustion/flexible-fuel mode on longer trips. Where and when can I get the 500-mile-per-gallon solution that Boot talks about? I want one now!

Linda Nicholes

Anaheim

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With the refinery fire in Texas and a landslide-generated spill into Pyramid Lake (March 24), maybe our elected officials should look a little more closely at a massive drilling project in a wildlife refuge.

No one wanted either of these events to happen, but happen they did. Spills and accidents are unavoidable, just like landslides.

Maybe we should think about the vehicles we are driving instead.

Wayne Henderson

Professor of Geology

Cal State Fullerton