DEAR EDITOR:

The drumbeat of the political right is: “Oil production is down, natural gas production is down. Joe Biden stopped all exploration leases. Most Democrats are communists.” These campaigns of misinformation and lies do nothing to unite, heal or inform our country.

Type “Oil and gas production in the past two years,” into a computer search engine, and you will see that in 2021 oil and gas production was up from the prior year, and oil is projected to increase by 1 million barrels a day, just this year.

The United States is the No. 1 exporter of liquid natural gas, and we export more oil that we import right now. That sure sounds like we are energy independent.

Last year, U.S. energy companies (oil and gas) had combined profits of $176 billion, and that was at $70 a barrel. Today, oil is going for $130 a barrel. If only they could gouge us a little more!

The Department of Defense issued papers stating the only way the U.S. can be truly secure is to address climate change and to invest in alternative, clean energy, both wind and solar. If we are forward thinking about alternate energy sources, then we never again would have to bow to

dictators, despots, thugs and murderous Middle Eastern royal families!

When you hear mistruths and lies that some of our current elected leaders are saying, that Mr. Biden has his “foot on the throat of the American energy producer,” or that Russia is trying to influence the oil and gas policy, keep in mind that Biden’s administration has issued more drilling permits last year than the ex-president did by the end of his first year in office. So, if U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson does not know these simple facts, that are very easy to find. We should be asking ourselves, do we really want someone that is ignorant to the facts to represent our Valley and state? Or should we continue to let a puppet of oil, gas and coal companies continue to tell us the sky is falling.

Remember, just because they say it, doesn’t make it true.

GREG ZAITZEW

Boardman