In a July 2 Point of View article, Professor Michael Wohlgenant wrote that the only way to reduce oil prices in the near future is to expand supply. This appears to ignore the demand side of the equation.

Wohlgenant should take a drive on Interstate 40 about 7 a.m. on any weekday, and if he drives the speed limit he'll notice that he's about the only one doing so.

Until Americans demonstrate some self-control and can show that we've done everything possible to curb demand, our coastal areas and ANWR should be off limits to oil exploration and drilling.

Dave Andrews

Raleigh

Energy goals could rise

Regarding the June 24 news article "Critics: Energy goal too low":

I agree that the mandates for North Carolina electricity generating companies to produce power from renewables and reduce consumption through deploying energy efficiency technologies are too low. However, it has been the experience in other states with similar renewable energy mandates that after a couple of years during which renewable energy power generation increased at a faster rate than predicted, the mandates were increased. The same could happen here.

Furthermore, there is good evidence that Duke Energy and Progress Energy are serious about developing the necessary programs required by our new law. Duke Energy has recently announced a program to deploy solar systems on the building rooftops of participating customers that the utility will own and operate. The company plans to capture federal and state solar tax credits and use their tax liabilities to buy down the costs of these systems. As far as I know, this is the first such program in the U.S. by an investor-owned utility.

I am optimistic that our electric utilities will find that investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency will better serve the needs of their customers and mitigate climate change than investing in costly new coal-fired and nuclear power plants.

Thomas Henkel, Ph.D.

Sustainable Energy Consulting, Chapel Hill

Feeding fear

Your July 6 headline "Gas cost widens drilling's appeal" fed the fear that some politicians wish to perpetuate. It certainly caught my attention.

I think it would serve the public better if you'd also publish facts instead just opinions. On June 22, U.S. Sen. Joe Biden shared some real facts regarding the existing 41 million acres of offshore leases, of which only 10.2 million acres are being pumped.

Give us facts and we'll make better decisions. Based on the facts, I must agree with Biden that the push for additional drilling rights is a last ditch effort to steal more resources from the public before the lid is placed back on the cookie jar. There are other solutions to the high cost of gasoline.

Jeff Stratford

Raleigh

Oil and futures

Your front-page July 7 article fawning over U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge's bill to further regulate the oil futures market, a commodities exchange about which few others are complaining, diverted attention from the real issue.

Experts (like T. Boone Pickens, for one) say oil prices are simply the result of the difference between world supply and demand: an 85 million barrel/day production capacity can't feed an 87 million barrel/day demand. Others put the cost of market speculation at a dollar or two per barrel.

Etheridge's grandstanding will solve nothing, and neither will government tinkering with the futures market. Commodities markets establish value; they do not distort value. If Etheridge doesn't understand this, he should not be in Congress.

Politicos who block more drilling here at home should answer this question: "How high must crude oil and gas prices go, and how much must our economy tank as a result, before you'll admit publicly what you and the rest of us already know: that the only answer in the short term is increased production at home while we find longer-term solutions?"

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