Reader cries ‘foul’ over oil crisis

Dear Editor:

It’s time Americans wake up and do a little homework as to why we are all getting hosed at the gas pumps. There is NO shortage of petroleum deposits. There are more on-shore oil deposits within North America (especially Canada) than in Kuwait.

Expert geologists acknowledge over 60 million barrels await us in North America and more than triple this amount in Russia. The real shortage is artificial – refineries.

Despite billions in record profits the major oil companies have not built a new refinery in almost two decades, thus creating the “shortage” by deliberately limiting production. If they wanted to, they could build two new refineries for less than 15 percent of their total annual profit of 2007 and thus increase U.S. production by 25 percent.

But increased production equates to increased supply and more importantly – lower prices. What company do you know of that wants to make less money rather than more?

Get real! This is the tail wagging the dog folks.

By the way, we also have steam injection technology right here in America that for pennies on the dollar can get our old capped wells flowing again.

To add insult to injury, our beloved government officials, despite their lip service on CNN news clips, do not really want lower fuel prices because their second largest revenue stream (next to income taxes) are from fuel taxes, which fund roughly 30 percent of all government projects.

Do they really want less tax revenues than more? NOT.

Lastly, please remember that the oil industry has traditionally funded American political campaigns for years, including every Bush family member that held political office.

Lest we forget President Bush used the Enron corporate jet for his campaign appearance in 1999-2000; his family was heavily invested in Pennzoil for years; and five of his cabinet members were on the board of directors of oil companies.

Their cronies were all rewarded with the trillion dollar oil fields of Iraq, but their greed is so insatiable that they now want to scare us into drilling offshore so they can grab every penny they can squeeze from our fragile and ailing Earth as well.

This oil “crisis,” like the Iraq War was fabricated for no other reason than profiteering. If you cannot smell the stench of it all, thank the news media, which no longer investigates facts but only regurgitates government press releases that were spoon fed to them.

If American consumers keep buying into this ruse, it will be the Chinese driving and American pedaling sooner than you think.

Bruce A. Gorcyca

Parma, Ohio