Drilling extends dependence on oil

July 21, 2008

President Bush and Republicans in Congress say it's time to lift bans on drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ("It's time to drill for oil, Bush tells Congress," July 13). What a ridiculous idea.

A few months of high gas prices and we seem to have forgotten about global warming, and the national security dangers of dependence on oil.

We desperately need to reduce our use of fossil fuels and, hard and unfair as it might be, high energy prices seem to be the only thing that will get many people to conserve.

The very last thing we need to do is encourage the use of more oil by making it cheaper, especially at the risk of our oceans and wilderness areas.

David H. Smith

Baltimore

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