MAILBAG:

What drives those of us on the left nuts about Jim Righeimer (et al.) is how their ideology interferes with the ability to connect the dots.

On Aug. 9 (“Need to conserve is still on”), he extols the long overdue marketplace response to higher gas prices and belittles government mandates when it comes to solving problems.

But, he suggests we travel the globe where it is “easy to see democratically controlled countries with strong economies have cleaner air, cleaner water, and are more environmentally friendly ... ”

I assume he is referring to places like Western Europe where, thanks to massive gasoline taxes and huge subsidies for mass transit or wind farms, these signers of the Kyoto treaty drive fuel-efficient small cars when not riding the rails and enjoy cleaner air and water as a result.

Righeimer repeats his “drill, drill, drill” philosophy while selectively endorsing T. Boone Pickens’ plan for wind energy.

Yet he totally ignores Pickens’ warning from his ad that, “I’ve been an oil man all my life, but this is one crisis we can’t drill our way out of.”

BOB SCHMIDT

Corona del Mar

Thankful for Costa Mesa’s police chief

A tip of the hat and respectful thank you to all those involved in bringing Chief Chris Shawkey to Costa Mesa.

JOHN T. HAWLEY

Costa Mesa

Call for more drilling founded in our panic

It seems that recent polls indicate an increasing desire among many Americans to do away with hard-won protections of our beautiful public lands and scenic coastlines in favor of greatly increased, scenery-destroying oil and natural gas exploitation.

This is a rash, tragic and panicky response to the global situation of high fuel prices.

I suppose there is some sort of notion among many people that, somehow, multinational oil corporations will spend many multibillions of dollars erecting their enormous eyesores of drill rigs and other heavy-duty industrial contraptions with the hope that oil prices will plummet.

Oil companies, once again deftly utilizing their well-paid-for resources in American politics, are trying to play you all for suckers! The price of oil won’t go down because of new exploitation and all this oil may simply end up in China because it won’t be necessarily reserved for U.S. consumption (global free markets!).

If this country hasn’t made very serious progress in the next five to 10 years to wean ourselves off of all oil through alternatives, we will have not just dropped the ball — we will have lost it completely!

MICHAEL DUNCAN

Buena Park