Dear Editor:  
     Spurred by President Bush and his corporate and international friends, there has been a vast cry to begin drilling for off shore oil. The unsuspecting public believes that this will bring down the price of heating oil and gasoline.  They do not understand why none of the current proposals for drilling will reduce the price of gasoline or heating oil either now or in the future.
     There is a process that must be initiated before drilling can begin. First there must be an auction during which international conglomerates as well as large oil companies have the right to bid on specific parcels to be drilled. This means that blind corporations which are owned by countries like Dubai, Saudi Arabia, China and India may win the bids at the expense of the people of the United States. Through this legal process, and the power brokering which is inevitably involved in such processes, the American people may be deprived of the natural resources necessary for our survival. 
     It has been reported that it costs around $60 to $70 dollars a barrel to drill off shore wells as opposed to $19 a barrel to drill on land. This is due to the time required to build and deliver the equipment to the well site as well as the cost of people and machines to do the job. It takes three to five years to develop a well site and another three to five years to get the oil out of the ground, not to mention the refining process and the related costs of getting the final product to the consumer.
     There are almost six million acres of leased land by oil companies which have not been developed. These parcels were bid on a number of years ago by American owned companies. Why weren’t they developed? Every effort has been made by American corporations and the oil industry to prevent the development of alternative energy and it is this refusal to allow the development of alternative energy sources that has placed our citizens in harms way.  
     Today we are faced with the possibility of large numbers of people going hungry and being unable to afford to heat their homes during this and subsequent winters as a result of  the failure of our elected officials at all levels of government and in both parties to take action on behalf of their constituencies.
     Federal, state and city governments have generated energy policies which benefit high population centers at the expense of our rural populations; however over 80% of our state footprint is rural. New York State is one of the most prolific agricultural states in the country and as much attention must be paid to the needs of those in rural areas as those in urban areas. The energy needs of this important segment of the population, in terms of the production and delivery of food as well as other essential goods and services, must not be overlooked. 
Richard Franklin
Red Hook, NY