Editor:

Should we put sensitive offshore drilling on the table to reduce fuel prices?

Don't kid yourself. The only "table" this oil will be put on is the auction table. Big oil is creating a crisis to transfer public oil to private hands and line their pockets at the same time. This is the 21st century version of the Teapot Dome swindle and amazingly enough, we're falling for it again.

Oil spokesmen have been asked why they haven't increased drilling on the 80 percent already open to drilling. They revealed they can't increase drilling because 100 percent of the ocean rigs are in use and have admitted that our refineries are already operating at capacity.

No shortage of crude oil is affecting their price. Prices aren't responding to supply and demand, nor do they relate to production costs. Major oil companies are using futures markets to justify prices, but that's not where they get their oil. They have their own production and future contracts.

Exorbitant pricing is not windfall profits. They are shaking down the money trees with bulldozers and shaking down the public with BS. They certainly manage our money better than we can n- just compare their bank accounts with ours.

MEL LOGAN, Sheridan