My son will enter college this fall to study economics. His choices included the Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business and the University of Chicago.

After reading "The Era of Cheap Energy Is Over" (May 4 Forum), I'm pleased he has decided on Chicago. Carnegie Mellon professor Lester B. Lave is certainly correct in his assumption that imposing a $4- per-gallon-tax on gasoline would curtail demand greatly. I'm sure as an economics professor at one of the world's best business schools he also realizes there is another side to the equation. I do not know his political affiliation, but it is curious that Mr. Lave does not address the supply side of the issue.

The U.S. oil supply, in Alaska and off our shores, is vast. We have the technology to extract this oil in an environmentally friendly manner. New refineries to process this oil into gasoline must be built. The last refinery to open in the United States was in 1976. I'm sure that we will not have to "beg Iran, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia to have pity on us" if we have the courage to do what needs to be done to increase the supply of our own oil!

PAT FRANCESCHELLI
Murrysville

There are millions of gallons of oil in Alaska. We won't drill there because it will endanger the wildlife. Meanwhile, people in the United States are really hurting as gasoline is already over $4 a gallon in some states. Hundreds of thousands of people are working for minimum wage and must buy gasoline to get to and from work. What is more important, wildlife in Alaska or human beings in the United States? If we don't use our natural resources, then we will forever be dependent on foreign oil.

JERRY JONES
South Park

In response to Herbert Barry's May 6 letter ("Higher Gas Taxes Can Be Beneficial in the Long Run"), let me first congratulate Mr. Barry on his financial success; he must be very wealthy to make a statement that is so out of touch with the issues facing the majority of Americans today.

As the high cost of gas continues to wreck our economy, Mr. Barry would have the government increase the burden instead of looking for creative ways to ease it. Mr. Barry's credentials list him as "professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh" and as a member of the Allegheny County Democratic Committee. His letter is just more proof that the academic elite is completely disconnected from what is going on in the real world and that the powers-that-be in the Democratic Party do not have much concern for the needs of average citizens.

KIRK J. KOWALKOWSKI
Arnold

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First Published: May 11, 2008, 4:00 a.m.