Letter: President could shame Big Oil
A look at gas prices at a Mobil gas station along Route 25 in Smithtown. (Feb. 28, 2012) Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
So, everyone wants to blame the sudden rise in gasoline prices on "instability" in the Middle East ["Markets, not pols, control gas prices," Editorial, Feb. 22]. Hogwash!
The fuel we are pumping today was bought and paid for at a fixed price a year ago. I watched President Barack Obama's recent speech in Florida on the energy situation, and honestly the president missed the mark and a golden opportunity.
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy responded to an increase of roughly 3.5 percent on the price of steel by that industry. He challenged the industry publicly, and according to some historians, there were serious backroom threats of investigations of price-fixing and corporate tax evasion. The point is that he stood up to the corporate steel giants, and they backed down.
The president has a bully pulpit, and Obama has yet to use it to challenge the petroleum industry on its gouging of the American public and record profits.
If petroleum prices continue to rise, our fragile recovery will collapse.
James P. Kelly, Garden City
Editor's note: The writer is an adjunct professor of political science at St. Joseph's College in Patchogue.
