Both sides of debate over Proposition 87

Re “No ‘extortion tax,’ ” editorial, Sept. 26

I applaud The Times’ position on this ill-considered but potentially popular initiative. Proposition 87 is terrible public policy, and it is unnecessary. Most important, however, it is potentially destructive.

According to state data, California’s oil production peaked in 1985 and has now declined to levels last seen in 1943. California’s oil is produced from almost 48,000 active wells, 26,000 of which produce less than 10 barrels a day. More than 85% of California’s oil is heavy oil, which sells for a lower price than more desirable crudes because it is harder to refine. This is important because it suggests the fragility of what the initiative’s sponsors are trying to tax.

A Proposition 87 tax looks to an oil producer exactly like a reduction in the selling price of the oil. It would have the same effect. Proposition 87 would produce one inescapable result: lower oil production in California. The mechanism would be the abandonment of marginal wells. Once abandoned, such wells are seldom reactivated and their productive capability is lost forever.

JEF KURFESS

Westlake Village

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Was the writer of this editorial around in the 1970s? Has the writer done any true investigative work in regard to our nation’s dependence on oil, and on foreign oil in particular? Current investments and progress in alternative fuels can quickly dissolve away as they did when the Saudis and OPEC lowered oil prices in the early 1980s.

The great fallacy of what this editorial tries to convey is that private enterprise will ultimately solve our energy issues. Even a rudimentary study of history surrounding great nation-building projects such as the intercontinental railroad, the interstate highway system and the Apollo program shows that governmental leadership energizes private industry to accomplish great things. With a lack of leadership out of Washington, Californians have a chance to start the nation on a course of pursuing an energy policy that may get us closer to controlling our own energy destiny. Proposition 87 is a step in the right direction, and it does so by having Big Oil pay a fee that it pays in every other state and country where it extracts oil -- except California.

CHRIS WOLFE

President, Americans

for Energy Independence

Studio City