LETTERS

TO THE EDITOR

The newspaper welcomes brief letters (generally no longer than 400 words) that express an opinion on a currently newsworthy topic. The writer’s contact information must be included for verification. Letters that contain defamatory comments, open letters, third-party letters, letters sent to more than one publication, and letters that would more appropriately be advertisements, including Cards of Thanks, are unlikely to be published. One letter generally is allowed per writer per calendar month.

Fuel prices

To the editor:

An article last week quotes Gas Buddy’s expert as saying high gas prices are from reduced refining capacity before COVID and pent-up demand for travel post-COVID.

Ah, what would we do without COVID for an excuse for about anything?

What about abysmal federal energy policy — canceling pipelines and shutting down permits to drill on federal land, then going crawling to Saudi Arabia, a known human rights violator, to crank up the production?

If Russia was not embargoed, we could go to our world rival, Russia, to bail us out. All of which, of course, clobbers our balance of payments picture.

Why, why, why would we not want to use all measures possible to be energy self-sufficient (which we were fairly recently) and not have to rely (at great expense) on bad actors in the world to keep the American wheels turning?

Steve Schmidt, Hesston