Brian Richards is a long-time friend of mine. However, his garrulous letters exhaust me. Our ideological debates over the poker table for many years were fun and entertaining. I won all of them (he would disagree). Since he has become a prolific letter writer to the editor (who by definition can say and print whatever he wants), I have refrained from commenting or entering into another debate, which would be caused by his not reporting all of the facts that make his closing statements inaccurate.
However, his recent letter, “Thank Joe and Gavin at the Pump” (Oct. 7), casting Joe Biden and Gavin Newsom as the cause of high oil prices, is as false as most of his premises. The facts, unreported in his article, are the following:
From the USA Energy Information Agency:
The U.S. exported oil as early as 1913, and Japan was a big buyer in the 1930s. President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted an oil embargo that cut off shipments to Japan in 1940, which helped prompt the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Since the lifting of the ban on U.S crude oil exports by the U.S. in 2016 to 2020, exports have surged six-fold from around 590,000 barrels per day to over 3 million barrels per day.
U.S. crude oil exports dropped in 2021 after having increased every year since 2010 and reaching a record high in 2020. U.S. crude oil imports increased by about 235,000 barrels per day in 2021 to about 6.1 million barrels per day. Crude oil net imports were about 3.1 million barrels per day in 2021.
To cast the blame for high oil prices on “Joe and Gavin” is another display of misinformation that is meant to show what bad guys Democrats are. Now, not being a registered Democrat, I don’t have any skin in the game. But I am a firm believer in one truth, not “two truths.”
Tony Matthess
Newhall
