SOUNDING OFF:

The Daily Pilot insults the intelligence of its readers when it encourages pedestrian intellects to masquerade as multitalented experts in petroleum engineering, economics and politics, while offering their self-serving, unsubstantiated opinions as facts (“Help burst gas bubble,” June 21).

However, the Daily Pilot did identify the source as a “GOP activist.” That explains very quickly why “the left” was found to be wholly responsible for every conceivable problem facing this nation — floods, wild fires, tornadoes, recession, two wars, salmonella and the high price of gasoline. However, the last time I checked, in the last six of seven years, “the right” controlled the White House, both Houses of Congress and some would brag, the judicial branch. Also, the last time I checked, of the 41 million acres of U.S. offshore ocean leases that have been granted to the oil companies, only 10.2 million acres (25%) have been drilled on to date. A full 75% of existing offshore leases remain unexplored. Why the rush for more leases?

The first step in solving any problem is to clearly and honestly define the problem — devoid of spin, political talking points and lobbyist pressures. The current high price of gasoline at the pump appears to be a product of speculation driven by estimates of demand outstripping supply. In the short term, defined as the next two to four months, very little can be done to increase supply, without going down on our knees and begging OPEC to pump more crude, as our president has tried unsuccessfully a couple of times.

However, demand can be cut drastically, without resorting to any change in lifestyle, other than speed. Most automobiles currently on the road can increase their mpg by 15% to 20% if driven at 55 mph instead of 70 mph. That is a huge reduction with relatively little sacrifice for most of us. We did this once before; we can do it again — immediately.

The long term problem will not be even defined — clearly and honestly — until we have a leader who can end this decades-long, highly destructive civil war between what has been caricatured as “the incompetent left” and “the evil right.” Until then we will continue to send our sons and daughters to die and be maimed in foreign lands, colonized by us, so that our 5% of the world’s population can continue to consume 30% its resources.

JAMSHED DASTUR lives in Newport Beach.