To the editor:

The recent news of Chevron and its partners discovering a substantial oil source in the Gulf of Mexico initially sounded optimistic. It was the first positive news story concerning gasoline in recent memory.

However, it has been written that Americans will not see gas prices decline as a result of this new resource for another five to seven years. Is it overzealous of the citizens of the wealthiest and most technologically advanced nation in the world, to demand a safe, nonpolluting alternative fuel source by the year 2013?

I argue that this demand is reasonable for the country that safely sent its citizens to the moon 37 years ago, has nuclear weapons that are powerful enough to destroy a significant portion of the world and has increased the technology in genetic manipulation. Americans endured the 1973 oil crises; they surely never expected that 30 years from then that the United States would have ceased to establish a more economically, politically and environmentally effective fuel source. It’s the new millennium, but forget flying cars, America can’t even get all of its cars to drive 20 miles on one gallon of gas. Chevron and its partners’ discovery of a large oil source will allow many Americans and probably the government to hold on to false hope, thereby continuing their denial of the significance of the present gasoline situation. This discovery may help Americans in seven years, but I sincerely hope that we do not need that help.

Chris Orlando,

Lawrence