The opinions and several issues in the March 1 letter, "Taxes are too high to eat out, live in Duluth," seem misinformed at best and inflammatory at worst, demonstrating once again that there is a cadre of folks who will spout things with no facts but that align with their knee-jerk hatred of any politician they don't like.
The top five oil companies (three of them American) made the highest profits of all time, a combined $200 billion, in 2022. The letter could have placed the blame where it is due rather than apparently satisfying an obvious hatred of President Joe Biden. With the only real tool any president has, the bully pulpit, Biden can criticize these cartels for these obscene profits. He has no actual power to affect prices — Congress, maybe.
As to the strategic petroleum reserves in the U.S., they now stand at 372 million barrels, down from 582 million barrels one year ago. Far from "almost emptying" them, as the letter stated. As of 2018, the U.S was the largest producer and exporter of oil in the world. The Saudis could be if they wanted to retake that position.
Streets in Duluth are narrow, yes, but what could the city do about that, especially considering this year's snowfall? Perhaps we could ask the city to haul all the snow away; I'm sure that would be cheap.
Finally, regarding the letter's clear misunderstanding of potholes; fixing them is not really very feasible in the winter, as asphalt should be laid down when ground and air temperatures are between 50 and 90 degrees.
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Just as the letter expressed, I, too, would like to see taxes go down. That's a letter for another day.
Steve Cushing
Duluth
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