I am confused by your continued resistance to domestic drilling, and am concerned as to your stance on energy independence and state sovereignty. Recent spikes in gasoline prices, as well as an upward trend in prices overall, is enough of a concern for the citizens of Ohio for you to do something about it.
Ohio has been a state for a long time, and as a result only a small percentage of the state is controlled by the federal government. The federal government doesn’t determine whether or not southern Ohio can be mined for coal. In contrast, seventy percent of Alaska is property of the federal government. Is Alaska a territory or a state? If it is a state, why not respect the wishes of Alaskans and it’s representatives on this matter? What makes northern Alaska more untouchable than southern Ohio? Moreover, why should I vote for a Republican who strives to maintain higher gas prices when Paul Hackett will do the same thing but be more straightforward about it?
I look forward to your answer to some of these questions and will consider these answers in the primary elections, and next November.

Respectfully,
John Broussard

On NPR today I heard this: “It’s a victory for the federal government over the free markets today, which might sound strange coming from an administration and congress run by the GOP” (ha ha ha HA ha! says I). Then they say something like, “The Chinese company retracts its bid for Unocal. etc etc.” But isn’t it more like “free trade” to allow a private sector company to remain in the private sector, rather than allow it to go to a “corporation” in which the Chinese government has a 70% stake. Sounds to me like that’s keeping Unocal out of the Chinese public sector. At any rate the administration did nothing about the situation, and the congress preened about like they always do, but did nothing either. The stock for all three companies went up, Chevron raised it’s bid, and the Chinese government feels important about itself. Everybody wins except the folks at NPR and the NYTimes, who, overwraught with self-loathing, secretly wish the Chinese could have bought out Unocal…and Dow Chemical, and Exxon, and Eli Lilly, and General Electric…