Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

We currently have an issue where we can have energy independence, $2.50 per gallon gasoline, no new taxes, over one million new jobs and enough oil royalties paid to the government to pay off our national debt or we can maintain the status quo. I don’t like the status quo.

Why do we watch tax dollars being spent on failures like Solyndra, TARP and other bailouts? Why did we not sign on with the Keystone Pipeline?

The president says there is no “Silver Bullet” but with his pen he could solve our dependence on foreign oil. He could sign off on Keystone (700,000 barrels of oil per day), open up the Gulf of Mexico ( 400,000 barrels per day) and Alaska ( 1 million barrels per day). With the royalties paid by the oil companies, approximately $18 trillion, the national debt would be paid off in 20 years.

Remember both Obama and his energy secretary have said that the United States must see what it is like to pay the same for oil that the Europeans pay. Why do we have to be the same as Europe?

Now is the time to decide: Status quo or energy dependence or $4 to $6 per gallon for gas or less than $2.50 per gallon. I vote for $2.50 or less per gallon. I like having money to go on vacations when I want and not having to worry about the price of gas.



Dale Burnham
Ripon
March 7, 2012