Madam, - You rightly state in your Editorial of August 10th that oil supplies are not near exhaustion. However, many experts say we have passed, or are about to pass, the peak of oil production. The current fuel price rises seem to be due mostly to a lack of refining capacity arising from political and military instability in many of the oil-producing areas.
Market economics would dictate that investors develop more capacity when there is a shortage. However, investors know that in the medium to long term, as oil resources deplete, any additional capacity will become superfluous.
There have been many calls in your pages for the Government to "do something" about the rising price of fuel. I suggest that that something should be to increase taxes on fuel in order to influence our choices on its use.
Sooner rather than later, we will have to realise that the era of cheap energy is gone and the sooner we modify our way of life to take this into account, the easier that transition will be. - Yours, etc,
PETER FELLOWS-McCULLY, Abberley, Killiney, Co Dublin.