Idea to reduce gas prices

To the editor:

The price of gasoline is very easy to fix. The state, through the Department of Natural Resources, should take our royalty oil in-kind rather than selling it on the open market, where the Legislature gets a big chunk of cash to spend. The department could then sell our royalty oil to the refiners that produce all the petroleum resources sold to the consumers of the state — at a very reduced rate of less than $30 per barrel.

They are now selling the crude to the refiners at what is called the refiners input rate, nearly $110 per barrel. The $80 per barrel reduction in cost should reflect about $2 less per gallon at the pump for consumers, and legislators would still get a chunk of cash to spend, just not as much.

William Bruu

Wasilla