U.S. Dependency on Foreign Oil

Your editorial is absolutely right. We must use oil more efficiently. One way of achieving this is to replace the direct burning of oil with the use of electricity. This can be done in industry, transportation and even home heating. It has been demonstrated that the high efficiency of many electrical processes more than compensates for the energy losses encountered in generating and delivering electricity.

Furthermore, using electricity means that we are not dependent on a single fuel. If foreign oil becomes unavailable we still have an abundant supply of electricity that can be generated with domestic coal and nuclear energy. Another plus is that nuclear and coal generating plants don’t compete with home heating for fuel oil.

SULLIVAN S. MARSDEN JR.

Prof. of Petroleum Engineering

Stanford University