Fort Wayne Newspapers

600 West Main Street, P.O. Box 100

Fort Wayne, IN 46802

To the Editor,

With gas prices continuing to hit record highs, Americans are feeling the pinch. While regular
American families are struggling to figure out how they’ll afford to pick up the kids and drive to
work, the oil industry recently celebrated record quarterly profits in the billions. Again. It's no
coincidence that as gas prices surged to record highs, the largest oil companies in the world
reported more than $40 billion in 2nd quarter 2008 profits.

The demands for more oil drilling should not drown out the fact that the beneficiary of increased
off-shore and domestic drilling will be the oil companies, not us.

A recent poll reported that 80% of Americans believe that we should end the billions of dollars
in oil subsidies and instead use the money to invest in clean, renewable energy sources. Yet the
president refuses to end the billions in taxpayer-funded subsidies that are helping to fuel Big
Oil’s record profits.

Instead of the failed policies of the past, it's time to break our addiction to fossil fuels by shifting
our priorities and our policies toward creating the clean energy economy. It's time to take back
the giveaways to Big Oil and invest that money in clean, renewable energy and efficiency. Our
goal should be to reduce carbon emissions 80% by the year 2050. This idea was presented to
Congress on April 14, 2007 at the Step it Up national day of action on climate change. The We
Campaign has an even better goal: 100% renewable energy in ten years. Clean, renewable
energy is the only way for us to change our dependency on oil and other harmful fossil fuels. We
as people have the power to voice our concerns to Congress and remind them that our reliance on
oil is hurting the economy, harming the environment, and causing political unrest. We all have a
voice it is time we stand up and use it!

Samantha Chapman
6217 Spy Glass Run
Fort Wayne, IN 46804
(260) 436-8510
www.greenbeings.ning.com Administrator