Four pumps at an oil production facility in Watford City, N.D. (Charles Rex Arbogast, The Associated Press)
Re: “More drilling, more pollution,” Oct. 25 guest commentary.
Thanks to Anna McDevitt for her column cogently arguing against lifting the U.S. government ban on exporting crude oil. From an environmental standpoint, we cannot afford any policies which will encourage even more extraction and burning of fossil fuels.
However, if consumers were paying the true costs of fossil fuels, including the cost of health care due to air pollution, the costs of cleaning water polluted by drilling activities, and the costs of adaptation to and disaster relief due to climate change, no government regulation would be needed; consumers would quickly demand less expensive renewable energy supplies.
To make this a reality, a fee on carbon extraction, levied at the source — whether a mine or a well — or at the point of importation would both incentivize this transition and be a source of revenue to deal with the costs we have already incurred from the last 100 years of dependence on fossil fuels.
Nelson Bock, Denver
This letter was published in the Oct. 29 edition.Campaign organizer Anna McDevitt makes the assumption that “If oil companies have a larger distribution market for oil produced in the U.S., they’ll drill more … .” She assumes that this increased flow to other markets is going to cause an increase in consumption with the resulting increase in global warming. What McDevitt fails to realize is that demand for oil is global. Countries are going to get their oil from somewhere, whether we supply it or not. There is no logical reason why the U.S. should not benefit from the sale of our own oil. Our transportation of crude oil can be improved for sure — fewer trains and more and safer pipelines like Keystone. But withholding our oil from world demand is naive and makes no sense.
Larry Dorner, Aurora
This letter was published in the Oct. 29 edition.
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