Market forces drive gas prices
Re “Big Oil buys Sacramento,” Opinion, May 14
Oil is a private-sector, investor-owned industry, not a utility. The state has no legal role to play in telling the industry how much to produce, what prices to charge or how much to pay for anything. We don’t live in the old Soviet Union, where the state dictated production levels and prices. The only role the state plays with respect to this industry, or any other, is in the arena of regulations, permitting and ensuring fair play. The state can keep things from happening, but it has very little authority to make things happen. If Jamie Court and Judy Dugan want to solicit investors and run the gantlet of the permitting process to build a new refinery here, no one is stopping them. This might help lower prices.
JEF KURFESS
Westlake Village
*
There is a silver lining in higher gas prices: Motorists are finally cutting back on how much they drive. It’s painful and, as usual, small businesses and the lower classes are hurting the most. I would much rather see higher prices as a result of higher taxes dedicated to spending on alterative energy projects instead of more money for the oil companies. But if free-market forces are what you want, this is the result. We are very close to the point at which people will have to choose between driving to work or taking alternative means. The oil companies’ greed will drive us to make big changes, and that, in the end, is a good thing.
JAMES PARDUE
San Jose
*
Clearly, Court and Dugan have no idea about the facts of gasoline prices or Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s record. First of all, cost at the pump is controlled primarily by the international price of crude oil, which fluctuates daily.
Second, in the last year, gas prices in California increased much less than in other states. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the price of gasoline in California increased 3.9% over the last year, compared with 5% nationally and 10% in the Midwest. And the price of gasoline will continue to rise if we do nothing.
We must end the monopoly of oil and bring greater competition to our fuels market. In January, Schwarzenegger established the nation’s first low-carbon fuel standard to reduce the carbon content in transportation fuels 10% by 2020. This order offers protection from continuously escalating gas prices by expanding fuel alternatives.
LINDA ADAMS
Secretary
California Environmental Protection Agency
Sacramento
