Looking for relief at the gas pump

Re “Drivers Face ‘Tough Summer,’ Bush Says,” April 23

I’m surprised that no one seems to be suggesting the easiest way to cut oil consumption: reimpose and enforce a 55-mph speed limit. With President Bush insisting we’re at war for our very survival, and troops risking their lives, is this too great a sacrifice to ask? Enforcing a lower speed limit might put a dent in the crazy, gas-guzzling, carbon dioxide-spewing horsepower race that plays such a large part in American car marketing.

LORENZO SEMPLE JR.

Los Angeles

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Here are a couple of ideas the federal government could quickly implement to provide immediate relief at the pump: Cut gas taxes, release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and permit oil drilling offshore and in Alaska, where we know there is plenty of oil.

I don’t care if rich liberals living in mansions in Malibu or Santa Barbara have to gaze at an oil derrick on the horizon occasionally. Obviously, over the long term, we are going to have to transition to alternative sources of energy, not because of liberal claptrap over global warming but because fossil fuels are a finite resource.

GEOFFREY C. CHURCH

Los Angeles

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Why is it that when the price of oil goes up, the price of gas that we see at the pump rises at the same time? How long does it take for the oil bought at lower prices to actually get to the refinery and your local gas station?

Why aren’t we paying a proportionately lower gas price that comes from crude pumped weeks ago? It certainly feels as if we consumers are getting taken and the new oil barons are laughing all the way to the bank.

JEFF SIROTY

West Hollywood