DEAR EDITOR:

Happy 2022 everyone, and so it begins. The 2022 midterm elections are in high gear!

Let me explain why Tim Ryan has earned my vote to be our next senator from Ohio.

In 20 years of being of voting age, 20 years of writing and calling our elected officials, and roughly 10 years of tweeting to our elected officials, only one of our elected officials ever responded.

Congressman Ryan personally returned my phone call in 2011 after I phoned his D.C. office voicing my concerns about rising fuel prices due to the violence from the “Arab Spring” and voicing my concern that Wall Street was overspeculating the oil markets, causing a spike in retail fuel prices.

As we all should know by now, excessive speculation adds to the price we pay at the pump.

As quoted from a Sept. 28, 2012 news release, “Goldman Sachs has suggested that speculation increases the price of a gallon of gas by 65 to 70 cents. Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson has said that speculation has maintained oil prices a third above what they would otherwise be.”

Let’s be frank, the Dodd-Frank bill did not go far enough to police these speculators who cause spikes at the fuel pump. Unfortunately, it’s not President Biden, as funny as those stickers may look on fuel pumps. No, I’m afraid it’s those who are excessively speculating the futures market on oil causing our gas prices to rise! Every time fuel prices rise, the masses blame the president or OPEC; however, the majority forget about the speculators!

Circling back, Rep. Ryan personally took time out of his busy day to return my phone call and left a voicemail expressing his own concerns of the burden that excessively high fuel prices are having on our Valley residents and businesses alike.

MICHAEL LEFFLER

Youngstow