Congress needs to respond to gas price issue

Thomas Neviaser
Published: July 12, 2008

Kudos to Mr. Callahan for his July 8 letter, “Congress must act to reduce oil prices.”

Our congressional representatives have done nothing for two years but rail on about our country and military as the price of oil has almost doubled.

Right now our government gets approximately 15 percent of every dollar at the pump for doing nothing while the oil companies get 4 to 5 percent for finding, drilling, refining and delivering gasoline to us.

And what about the speculators driving up the price of oil every day by placing only 10 percent of their money at risk in the commodity and not taking delivery of any of of the oil?

Drilling now, everywhere, is a good idea.

However, increasing the cost of commodity buying by insisting that 50 percent or more be at risk from the speculators and eliminating the federal fuel taxes until the price of oil decreases to a reasonable price would have the short-term effect we desperately need in lowering prices.

Congress needs to work for the American people, not its own egos and power-seeking agendas.

Remember “Of the people, for the people, and by the people?” Nowhere does it say “Of the government, for the government, and by the government.”

Thomas Neviaser
Rixeyville