Good and Bad Reasons for High Oil Prices

The Sept. 18 op-ed column by Henry A. Kissinger and Martin Feldstein, "The Power of Oil Consumers," ignored the impact of oil prices on consumption: High prices reduce oil consumption, and lower prices result in increased consumption.

Thus, if their desired objective, lower oil prices, were achieved, higher consumption would be the inevitable result -- something the authors, who recognize the importance of developing alternative energy sources, would not favor.

The writers also assumed that continued high oil prices will result in a continued transfer of wealth to OPEC countries. This is true only if the price paid at the pump flows primarily into the coffers of the oil companies -- and ultimately to the oil-producing countries. But that does not have to be the case.

If the United States were to impose a gasoline tax designed to maintain, say, a constant $3.75 or $4 price per gallon at the pump (so that the lower the price of gas went, the higher the tax would be -- and vice versa), this would reduce consumption (because of the price) and generate revenue that could be used to fund research and development of alternative fuels. It would also reduce the transfer of wealth and the attendant economic and political risks with which the authors are justifiably concerned.

CRAIG J. BLAKELEY

Annandale

·

I hope that one of the reasons that members of Congress have hesitated to approve further offshore drilling [news story, Sept. 17] is that they are considering the possibility that oil companies manipulated prices to achieve this precise goal.

The price of oil and gasoline in the past six months has been related neither to an immediate supply shortage nor to an overwhelming increase in demand.

KAREN MITRANO SNYDER

Bethesda