Dear editor:

What a lame excuse for raising gas prices. A small fire at a refinery and the devalue of the dollar.

You can’t tell me these multi-million-dollar oil companies don’t make a surplus or a at least a large supply of gas in this country. What they do is load a ship in the U.S. and send it out to sea for a period of time, bring it back to the same place it was loaded. But now it is classified as imported oil.

I witnessed that happening when I was in the Navy stationed in New Orleans. Ships would go down the river loaded with oil. We would go out in the Gulf on operations and see that ship anchored in international waters, then a month or so see that same ship come up stream, still loaded, heading to unload.

Tell me we aren’t being ripped off by the oil companies.

Come on, electric cars. That might teach those big shot execs we can do without them.

Thank you.

Phil Wills

Niles