Oil and the US
Nicholas von Hoffman's article in your 41 July issue goes a long way toward eth)(Plaining why it is impossible to believe "le same issue's leader when it sanctimomslY asserts that 'Until American domestic oil.product prices are . . at least the same as tPhrlees in west Europe , . no one can claim at the United States is taking oil seri"uslY.' The United States takes the price of Petrol seriously because it has to. As von .°.ffnlan hints, in all but a few large eastern cities th a private automobile is a necessity in :ge United States. Here in Britain, with its s'risive rail and bus network, a private !atom° i bile s a luxury — no matter what car uwners may believe. r„,M,.anY Britons have difficulty, 1 know, in tt7Ils,ling how complete is the lack of public ligns.it in the United States. For example: live In Texas, a state roughly the size of west Th"rn,Pe. It has no passenger rail service,. Nat s right, none whatever. The state caps' ,Atistin, has only a rudimentary bus rapid e, and of course no underground or 4731)1d transit line, for its population of over tra°°°. If I want to go the seven miles Of my home to my work at the University or 1 exas, I have four choices: I can bicycle "'K Jean take a cab, !can drive, or I can fo a Mile to the nearest bus stop and wait 2 the hourly bus which will let me off"early half a mile from my office. (Mr von Hoffman might wonder why I don't live closer to my work. The answer is simply that I can't afford to. House prices in Austin and many other cities rise as one nears the central city.) Congress and the President know full well that allowing the price of petrol to rise to European levels would severely disrupt American economic life and place an intolerable and unjust burden on the poor and infirm. Imagine the similar effect if rail and bus fares here were suddenly trebled. The United States should be criticised for failing to develop mass transit and for allowing what it had to fall into ruin, but it ought not to be criticised for subsidising motorists by controlling petrol prices so long as British Rail and bus services receive subsidies from the government.
Lee T. Pearcy Mansfield College, Oxford
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