Letter: Fear-mongering on oil prices ignores benefits to consumers

Editor,

How come our media are mourning on and on and everywhere about how the drop of oil price per barrel is such a serious blow to our economy, and not a drop of relief mentioned on behalf of poor consumers who see lower prices at the pump?

It is not just the corporatist media wringing their hands about the loss to profits to “big oil.” They could be expected to whine about how disappointed they are that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has refused to cut down on production so that oil prices can remain high.

It seems like just yesterday OPEC was being pressured by us to lower producer prices; oh yeah, now that we are a top producer ourselves, why not do an about face? They can be expected to take sides with Wall Street, which has made a killing by manipulating pump prices to remain high through layer upon layer of speculation.

Unfortunately governors of states extracting oil are also fear-mongering on this count, because it has now been revealed that some states have invested heavily in oil. That includes New Mexico.

Now UNM, being a publicly funded school, gets money from the state, so UNM’s spending plan has to be drastically shrunk. But before our administration warns us more about cutting down on this or that facility for students, let us first do the algebra properly by factoring in the savings to starving young students with cars, especially on this largely commuter campus.

Sincerely,

Arun Anand Ahuja

UNM student