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I have tried to lower my fuel costs by keeping highway speeds between 60 and 65 mph. This, however, is a dangerous way of driving out on I-440 and 540, especially during rush-hour, where 70 to 80 mph seems to be the norm, as does tailgating and swerving from lane to lane in order to arrive at your destination five minutes sooner.

So I would suggest, for all of you NASCAR wannabes who are in such a big rush to go nowhere, don't complain when you need to drop another $100+ into that very useful and practical Escalade, Tahoe, Expedition, Hummer, etc. Just keep your foot on the gas pedal and your mouth shut about the high cost of your 75 mph ride to work!

Greg Beauchaine, Raleigh

Oil's many uses

Thank you for your June 23 editorial "Here's the drill?". In addition to the excellent reasons you gave for abstaining from drilling for oil and gas off our coast, there is another huge reason for being very careful with our resource management.

Crude oil should be considered an endangered species. While it is used primarily as an energy source, petrochemicals are also the raw materials that we must conserve for modern daily existence. From car parts to medicines or from home construction components to life support technology, no viable alternatives, in the quantities to which we are accustomed, exist for materials made from hydrocarbon chemistry. Depletion of our finite oil supply will mean more than no plastic for credit cards; it will mean no electronics, synthetic fibers, cosmetics, paints and thousands of other products we depend on. It is just a matter of which generations will be around when the last drop is pumped out.

A quicker way of helping the energy situation would be government stimulus incentives to automobile customers based on a new miles-per-gallon usage. How about an instant rebate at the time of purchase based on mpg of the vehicle?

Phil Wood

Winston-Salem

McCain's gas gimmick

Regarding the June 23 article "McCain plugs better batteries":

Some things are just too obvious. The latest John McCain big idea -- a $300 million prize should be awarded for the development of a battery package that has the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars -- is a classic blunder. McCain previously stated in December in New Hampshire that "the issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should." His latest stunt proves him right.

While the omnipotence of market forces is usually overstated, in this case the free market will generously award anyone who can fulfill McCain's challenge. What he forgets is that the government already has an award mechanism for brilliant innovation: the patent system. The search for a better battery hasn't been limited by a lack of awards but by a shortsighted failure to invest in research by gluttonous oil companies and an inept, inattentive government.

The time for real change in Washington is long overdue. Please ignore campaign rhetoric and distractions parroted by the news media and invest your vote in an articulate president with a grasp of economics who sees this gimmick for what it is.

John Yoakum, Cary

Dole and drilling

The June 27 article "Dole shifts on drilling" reported that Sen. Elizabeth Dole had changed her mind and now believes that oil drilling off the coast should be permitted. Once again, she proves herself to be among the most loyal of the Bushbots, as her shift coincides with that of her dear leader.

Dole regards this as a reasonable response to this year's run-up in gasoline prices. Perhaps one of her staff members should tell her that all the oil-drilling ships in the world are now booked for the next five years. Or that it would take 15 to 20 years before large amounts of oil would be produced by these offshore wells. Maybe then she could answer the question of how this would affect the price of gasoline today.

Stewart Johnson, Durham

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