Editor:

There seems to be a well organized, quickly mobilized campaign to castigate Cynthia Lummis for the remark she made about the time Gary Trauner has lived in Wyoming. Many people make the same comment about people who come here, not to build a life but to try to change our life to make it more like the Eastern United States.

The Jackson area is notable for an influx of wealthy, environmentally oriented people who are critical of the rest of us. After all, they did vote for Kerry. We have effective environmental program in force and it works fine without the Eastern influence.

A word about Gary Trauner. If he is elected, he will be an echo for Nancy Pelosi because under her Third-World dictator type rule, you go along to get along. He is already repeating her comments on energy. Pelosi says if we start to drill, it won't make any difference in the price in 10 years.

But if we don't start to drill, where will the price be in 10 years? If we had started drilling 10 years ago, we would probably have 1 million to 2 million additional barrels now.

Why don't oil companies drill on the leases they have? These leases expire on set terms of three, five or 10 years, and the companies lose them if they don't drill. If the lease looks productive, someone will drill.

Why do we ship oil to Japan? The reason is we don't have enough refineries to refine heavy black Alaskan oil on the West Coast, so we in effect trade that oil for a better grade of oil for gulf coast refineries and make a profit on the transportation.

Gary claims to be a businessman but I do not know what his business is. He has been running for Congress for six years.

The Republicans are probably going to be a minority in the House again and will need all the help they can get to prevent higher taxes and more government controls. A new Republican from Wyoming will have little power now, but the power will shift and then the seniority which Cynthia can acquire now will be important.

DON THORSON, Newcastle