LETTERS: LONG-TERM PLAN NEEDED FOR FUEL

To the editor:

The rising price of gasoline is big news, and Big Oil and its allies in Congress are using every press opportunity to stump for drilling the Arctic. But drilling in the Arctic is not the solution to the present crisis. A sensible, long-term energy strategy is. While even the current price of $1.50 to $2 a gallon fails to cover the full environmental cost of each gallon of oil burned, there is no need for us either to funnel huge quantities of money overseas to pay for the oil or undertake expanded drilling within the United States. We need to correct the shortsighted vision of those who seek to open our national treasures and sensitive coasts to oil and gas development.

There is more oil to be found in Detroit than beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Rising oil prices have become a hot political issue. OPEC, the cartel of oil-exporting countries, is deliberately manipulating the market to drive up petroleum prices. OPEC is using classic supply-and-demand economics to pad profits. Unfortunately, America's Big Oil corporations and their allies have responded by renewing their call to drill the Arctic Refuge, a response that makes no sense economically or environmentally.

Ninety-five percent of Alaska's North Slope is already available for oil and gas exploration and leasing. The coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge represents the last 5 percent that remain off limits to drilling. No one knows if or how much oil is there. But responsible analyses say that if there is any oil to be found there, it's less than a six-month supply, and it will take 10 years to bring online. That's hardly going to lower domestic oil prices in either the short term or the long term.

The solution is to break our addiction to oil. America needs a long-term energy strategy for the 21st century, one that relies on conservation and renewables and alternative energy sources. Of course, the biggest single step to saving oil and curbing global warming is to raise the CAFE standards for light trucks and automobiles to 34 mpg and 45 mpg respectively.

President Clinton has the power to adopt the key long-term solution: improving the efficiency of the cars, SUVs and other light trucks which guzzle 40 percent of the oil we use. Automobiles are keeping us dependent on foreign oil and spewing out 20 percent of U.S. global-warming pollution. Despite these facts, fuel economy standards for SUVs and minivans have stagnated for 19 years and car standards for 14 years. And for the past five years the congressional leadership has prevented the government from even studying the possibility of updating our nation's fuel economy standards.

These days of high oil prices were sure to come. But we were not ready because years of inaction in Detroit and Washington have denied consumers the choices we deserve: efficient vehicles that meet our needs. In fact, as SUV sales have risen, the average fuel economy of new vehicles sold has fallen to its lowest point since 1980.

Americans can and must have vehicles that are more efficient. Honda's new 65-mpg gasoline-electric hybrid Insight proves automakers can make affordable, efficient and clean vehicles. Unfortunately, Detroit won't budge. By standing up to Congress and the auto industry now to raise fuel economy standards, President Clinton can help put more fuel-efficient cars on the road and break our nation's oil addiction.

Raising CAFE standards is a long-term strategy that would cut our addiction to oil, slash pollution and allow us to protect our national treasures like the Arctic Refuge for our families and for our future.

ALAN R.P. JOURNET

Cape Girardeau