Letter to the editor: Your right wing readers would like to go back to the 1950s but that will not happen

I have noted a recent flurry of letters to The Chronicle from your right wing and far right wing readers emphasizing the high cost of gasoline in Washington.

Washington, Oregon and California are isolated from the vast pipeline network of the South, the Rocky Mountain states, the Midwest and the East Coast. We get our fuel from our own refineries.

When Washington's five oil refineries are operating at full capacity, they produce more than enough fuel for the state. Washington refineries represent 3.4% of the United States' capacity but we only account for 2% of U.S. fuel consumption. A milder climate and vast hydropower projects account for that.

Washington is an exporter of fuel. About 51% of fuel produced in our refineries is consumed in Washington. About 35% goes to Oregon and California. California has 18 refineries and Oregon has none. About 14% goes to British Columbia.

Any downtime or supply constriction, whether naturally occurring or manufactured by the oil companies, will affect the price we pay at the pump.

Washington does have a high gas tax. For many decades, America and other modern industrialized nations have ignored the damage we have done to the planet from hydrocarbons.

The cost has been high and will get much higher this century. Refugees from heavily impacted areas on the planet will crowd into already overpopulated regions that are still somewhat habitable but also shrinking. This is already happening at our own southern border and in Europe. The political fallout portends a catastrophe.

Though he cannot legally do it, King Donald's Environmental Protection Agency recently declared null and void the Clean Air Act’s scientific finding that climate change endangers human health which formed the legal underpinning for most of the hydrocarbon abatement and clean energy programs the federal government has undertaken since 2009. Renewable energy will replace fossil fuels because it is cheaper. Trump's action just gives China a free pass to lead the future world.

Problem is, a fact is a fact whether we like it or not. The Earth is getting warmer. It is happening faster than it was first thought it would. There will be mass movement of global populations. This will cause strife and wars.

Your right wing readers would like to go back to the 1950s but that will not happen. The internal combustion era has had its day, but it is time for new, cleaner, cheaper technology.

Sen. John Braun and others on the right complain loudly about gas prices to distract from the skyrocketing prices for food and other consumer goods. As long as Trump's tariffs are in place, those prices will continue to rise. If elected, Braun would be another rubber stamp for King Donald and his destructive, divisive MAGA policies.

King Donald once said he could "shoot somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue and they would still vote for me."

One wonders if instead of a ballroom, and King Donald were to replace the demolished East Wing of the White House with a strip club (the King loves a spectacle), would Sen. Braun and MAGA object?

Marty Ansley

Cinebar