Oil plan must start with conservation

I am amazed at Douglas Dallmer's letter on Aug. 16th.

He wrote 300 words on our energy problems that will be solved by offshore drilling.

But of those 300 words, one key word was missing: conservation.

Whenever anyone talks about drilling in the Arctic or lifting bans on offshore drilling, they never try to temper their arguments with the fact that we need energy conservation.

We need to get huge SUV's off the road. We need fuel-efficient cars and high mileage standards. And we need to develop and encourage use of public transportation.

Once we incorporate all these alternatives, then yes, we can talk about offshore drilling as a last resort.

I suspect the folks who want offshore drilling are the same ones who drive their Hummers to their mailboxes, since they can't be bothered to walk down their driveway.

Julie Federico

Naperville