To the editor:

Before the 2006 election, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and fellow Democrats promised to lower the price of oil and gasoline if voted in as the Majority in the House and Senate.

They were, so let’s see what they have accomplished. In January 2007, when they were sworn in, oil was $53 a barrel. Gas was $2.26 a gallon and what is it now? Oil is $127 a barrel and gas is $3.78 a gallon, approaching $4.

How did they accomplish this achievement, by refusing over and over to allow drilling for oil or natural gas within our own borders.

The latest example of this was on May 13, 2008 when the Republicans offered an amendment to open up the Alaskan area for drilling, along with using coal to make fuel and research other ways to make fuel within our own borders. The area in Alaska is estimated to allow us to put on our market one million barrels of oil a day.

This amendment was voted down by the Democrats and in return they voted to force President Bush to stop filling the oil reserve at a rate of 70,000 barrels a day and also promised another investigation of the oil industry in which they have already had numerous since 2007 and found nothing illegal.

Now, I’m not one of Obama’s college elitists, but the high school I attended taught me that one million was more than 70,000.

When the Democratic leadership was asked a question after the vote if gas went to $5 a gallon, would drilling be allowed, their answer was a firm no, the American people would just have to pay it.

Their main reason for not drilling in Alaska is they are worried about the effect on the caribou and it will take 10 years to get to the market. Well, if they stall this for another 10 years, I have a hunch they won’t have to worry about the caribou.

When the economy falls apart because of high prices for food and transportation, the caribou will probably be gone because people will have killed them for food.

If you would like to contact the Democratic leadership about their concern for the caribou, their phone numbers are: Nancy Pelosi (202) 225-0100; Harry Reid (202) 224-3542.

P.S.: Bill Clinton vetoed the bill that allowed for drilling in Alaska in 1995. Look at where we are now.

Joseph F. Bleers

Cape Coral