Spill must spell major policy change

Someone please help clear up something for me. I keep hearing politicians talking about how the offshore drilling that is taking place in the Gulf is helping us become less dependent on foreign oil. It almost sound as though BP and is somehow doing something patriotic.

How? Isn't BP (British Petroleum) a multinational corporation?

We sell them leases to drill for our oil and they, in theory, pay us royalties for that oil. (I wonder if we'll be collecting the royalties on all the oil that is destroying our southern coast).

Given the track record of the Mineral Management Service, I doubt strongly that they are actually collecting the proper amount of these royalties.

Is oil that companies like BP extract off our shores earmarked for the U. S.? Is it somehow getting into our oil reserves or is it just going on the world market? Is the drilling that is taking place off our shores actually making us any less dependent on foreign oil. Or for that matter, is it really reducing the cost of gasoline in this country?

I tend to doubt that. If somehow there is some benefit from these folks drilling off our shores, I think it has been seriously outweighed by the catastrophic events of the last few weeks. If this isn't the time to seriously change our energy policy, when is?

Terry LaPlante

Schaumburg