Letters: The only way to solve gas issue is to ‘get off of oil'

The numbers have been run over and over and over that more oil wells will not lower gas prices, but still we hear this constant din that drilling offshore and in national wilderness areas will lower gas prices.

The only rational manner in which to resolve the problem of foreign oil dependency is to get off of oil. With record profits for the first quarter totaling more that 11 billion, Exxon-Mobil has spent a paltry 1 percent of those profits on alternative energy resource and development.

The message is clear, and it's not that drilling oil wells will resolve our foreign oil dependency or lower energy costs. Rather, it's that big oil and those who profit from big oil want to keep us addicted foreign or domestic oil because they profit from both.

The United States has about 23 billion barrels of proved reserves, offshore and onshore. We use about 7 billion barrels per year. You do the math.

Doug Dallam

Arcata