Federal meddling brings culpability, should get out of the way

A letter in the June 25 Daily Herald suggests greater "regulation" as the solution to such problems as the massive leak 5,000 feet underwater in the Gulf. That presumes, of course, that the federal government possesses pertinent knowledge and expertise superior to those of the oil industry. That is patently false.

The government doesn't know the first thing about how to drill at great depths to explore for oil, or how to produce oil from wells at such depths, or how to close a well at such depths that has been damaged by a massive methane explosion.

For the time being, as we have seen, all government can do is prolong and exacerbate the problem. Government should get out of the way and let industry - including people and equipment from foreign countries - handle it.

The causative factor here is Congress, and its "regulating" such drilling, i.e., prohibiting drilling onshore and in marshes and shallow waters offshore. By doing that, Congress knowingly increased both the costs and the risks of producing American oil.

Congress is just as culpable in this situation as BP and its partners.

Peter G. Malone

St. Charles