Dear Editor: In a Letter to the Editor (4/17/14), Mike Sandoval asks why gasoline prices are so high if there is so much oil being produced in North Dakota.

Well, it’s complicated, but it could be said that the new production from the Bakken Field and other state-controlled fields are barely keeping up with the decrease in production from on-shore and off-shore fields that are under federal control (Department of Energy, Interior and White House).

And that the price of crude oil is set in a world-wide market with increases sensitive to governmental regulation, of which the United States has countless pages – many only imposed to restrict the availability of oil products in the guise of “saving the environment.”

Drew Kelley

Downey

**********

Published: April 24, 2014 - Volume 13 - Issue 02