Letters to the Editor (Feb. 25)

The future of our oil

Editor:

The contention by Republicans and Rep. Yvette Herrell that the temporary ban on new oil drilling (fracking) on federal lands is a death blow to jobs and the oil industry is simply false. It has no merit.

Most fracking and new oil drilling occurs on private land in the oil fields of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Texas as well as Pennsylvania.

The reason oil companies want to use federal land here in New Mexico is simple: It’s cheaper and abundant. They do not have to deal with landowners, access rights and unhappy neighbors. So plainly speaking there is an alternative for the oil companies, they just don’t want to use it.

But there is a larger question here that Ms. Herrell and the Republicans will not publicly acknowledge and that is this: Many auto and oil industry as well as government studies have shown, electric cars will be close to 50 percent of all cars on the road within 20 years. Almost no one now between the ages of 1 and 10 will buy a gasoline powered car as an adult.

Every major automobile manufacturer in the world is dedicated to an electric car future and it’s not just coming — it’s here. The Tesla model S outsold the luxury brands from Cadillac and Lincoln combined in 2018. Tesla, Ford, Rivian and GM all have production models of trucks/SUVs soon to debut.

Volkswagen has said its car line will be all electric in 10 years. Jaguar, Volvo, Toyota and many others have production electric vehicles on sale now. Most companies offer hybrids now. New all electric car companies are appearing with breathtaking frequency including the new Lucid, Rivian and Polestar from Volvo.

The effect of this transition to electric vehicles will be to take the market away for half of the gasoline that is currently used for transportation by private vehicles.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Transportation fuel consumption accounts for more than 70 percent of total U.S. oil consumption, and more than 65 percent of that amount is for personal vehicles. American drivers consume about nine million barrels of gasoline per day for personal transportation — 378 million gallons every day — about 45 percent of total U.S. oil consumption.”

Therefore, if only half of all vehicles on the road are electric that means that there will be no market for 189 million gallons of gasoline every day or almost 69 billion gallons per year. Or about nine million barrels per day.

The oil we get from all of fracking only produces about 4.3 million barrels per day. Furthermore, this shift will drop the price of crude oil drastically. That price drop itself will be the death of high cost Oil Shale production which is barely sustainable at $50 per barrel.

That means fracking or Shale oil production will be the first casualty of the move to electric cars. This means New Mexico needs to shift its focus and dependency away from this industry and toward the future.

Rep. Herrell and the Republicans are hanging on like grim death to a slowly dying industry and must stop their disinformation and misrepresentation of this issue and start to look ahead to the transition from oil to electric, not only in automobiles but also in energy production. The economy of our state and our health depend on it.

Alan Perry

Belen

Utilize common sense

Editor:

Thank you Master Sgt. Lowery for your letter of Jan. 21. We share some of the same work and points of view developed in lifetimes — different and similar.

U.S. Rep. Herrell’s position, and obvious intention, appears as an announcement of her failure to see the constitutional results as instructive.

My experience are a mirror of moral “supper table” teaching by many folk before I finished attending my formal education and USAF service. Our collective is a result of participating in important affairs in this nation with understanding and appreciated value.

The point: Utilizing common sense, the absorption of good foundation ideals, and an informed approach to our nation’s errors in the pages of law, offers all of us the privilege to seek changes and laws.

Perhaps more of those, such as yourself, will speak for moving all our citizens toward the understanding you asked for in your letter. Amen.

F. Guy Glover

Los Lunas