Educate yourselves

Americans seem to fall for catchphrases and offer up simple solutions to complex problems. In the current political season, you hear things like “let’s stop Biden’s war on oil,” “we need to drill more,” “we used to be completely energy-independent, produce all of our own oil,” etc. The reality is there is no simple solution to gas prices and how we consume and produce oil.

The crude oil that comes out of the ground is graded by density, either “light/sweet” or “heavy/sour.” The oil from Texas and Oklahoma is generally light/sweet and the oil from countries like Venezuela and the cartel is mostly heavy/sour.

So the problem right now is the lack of oil infrastructure like pipelines from Texas Permian basin to the Gulf. Then, once the light/sweet oil gets there, having a refinery capable of refining it into gas and diesel. Most of the refineries on the Gulf Coast refine heavy/sour. The next big issue is there is only one port in Louisiana deep enough to load the super-tankers to carry American oil abroad so we can sell it to expand our own oil industry.

As our new Congress begins to take shape, people need to educate themselves on this important issue so that when constituents hear the catchphrases start up for solutions, they will better be able to respond and understand what is going on.

DAVE DINGLER

North Little Rock