The oil industry and its allies want to shift blame for record gasoline prices to OPEC and the Arabs. So Sens. Snowe and Levin’s recent column should come as no surprise (April 13).

But record gasoline prices are due to the Bush administration’s weak dollar policy that has added close to 25 cents and the oil industry’s agreement to manipulate supplies that has added about 30 cents to the average price of gasoline over the last three years (and about 60 cents over the last five years). The strategic oil reserve may play a critical role in our country’s future if the Bush administration’s plan to colonize the Arab Middle East unravels in Iraq or may be irrelevant if the plan succeeds and U.S. troops march into Tehran and Damascus. In either case, reducing or ending purchases for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will have no effect on gasoline prices.
Jon Albrecht, Dixfield