Letters to the Editor
-
After 22 years out of the US, a reader in Switzerland...
This entire issue is nonsensical. The price of gas over here in Switzerland is more than twice what it is in the US, and we're still the cheapest in Europe. What is needed are all-encompassing, radical steps, starting today, to start using less oil - and gas - in every area of life, and I do not mean turning to ethanol and starving the rest of the world.
The US, by putting its ingenuity and drive into - first and foremost!!- conservation, building and rebuilding infrastructure (house insulation), restructuring of eating and food supply habits, and constructing public transportation networks across the country, could manage to move into a new kind of lifestyle, create millions of new jobs, and regain the confidence and competence to move positively into the future. The challenge is huge, the issues formidable, but we must start now.
This insulting debate about a 'summer gas tax holiday' and business as usual will NOT help anyone over the short, middle or long term. Please, let's be realistic here and face up to the hard facts.