A recent TV report stated that the new administration is holding up the opening up of new areas for domestic oil drilling and exploration. I feel that this is a regrettable situation.
I would assume this decision was based on the belief that we should use less oil and should push for other sources of energy but it will cause us to have to purchase more oil from sources outside of the U.S., thus sending billions of dollars overseas at a time when we should be trying to keep as much money circulating here as possible.
Domestic production keeps jobs and badly needed money here at home and reduces our dependency on outside sources, some of which are not friendly to us.
For a large part of our history we were able to draw on abundant domestic sources of various types of reasonably priced energy to fuel our expanding economy while others had to rely on non-domestic sources.
I believe that we must produce more energy to allow our economy to flourish and that all types of energy sources should be exploited.
Oil may no longer be the preferred source for our energy needs, but we will need oil for many years to come as alternate means to power our economy will take time to develop.
It is my belief that everything should be done to assure a long-term supply of domestic oil; this does not mean that alternatives should not be aggressively pursued.
I would hope that the administration would change and not rule out expanding our domestic supplies of petroleum at the earliest possible time.
Darryl Smith
Kelseyville
