New England has just come through one of the harshest winters on record. Most Mainers use heating oil or wood to heat their homes. Some have access to natural gas. All are carbon-based sources of energy. The unprecedented high price of heating oil is because of, among other reasons, the weak American dollar and an increased worldwide demand for a limited supply of oil. For the same reasons, gasoline prices have risen. Making scapegoats of the oil companies and threatening to tax them out of existence, a favorite and fruitless pastime, will not increase oil supplies.

Our national government has intentionally limited domestic oil exploration and production within the borders of the U.S. We have proven oil fields on federal land (which belongs to the American people) in Alaska and on the continental shelf to which Congress forbids access. We have coal fields in Montana and willing investors in coal-to-oil production, but Congress stalls in establishing production guidelines.

Climatologists tell us now that we’re in a period of steady cool temperatures for at least the next decade. The atmosphere is not warming. Of course, we favor and must pursue the future development of alternative, nonpetroleum energy sources. In the present, however, we have a critical, truly vital need for affordable energy not only for the poor and elderly, but for all of us.

In my opinion, Congress has willfully neglected the energy issue for too long, and this current energy crisis is entirely unnecessary. We should be demanding that Congress begin work to rationally address the short- and long-term energy needs of our nation immediately: today, this week, this month. Put the Department of Energy to work.

Why do we even have a Department of Energy? Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted against lifting a moratorium that prevents the Department of Interior from issuing regulations allowing shale-oil projects in Colorado and Utah to move forward. Right now, the Climate Security Act is being debated in the Senate. If passed, this will require our country to cut its carbon emissions to unachievable levels with our current knowledge and technology unless we want to live in the cold and dark.

We have time to learn both how to develop noncarbon energy sources, a noble goal, and how to use carbon-based energy cleanly without hurting the American people. The Climate Security Act basically requires the elimination of petroleum energy sources. The reality is that we have no immediate, viable replacement energy sources for petroleum. The Climate Security Act is unnecessary and needlessly punishes all Americans.

Does Congress want to destroy what’s left of the American economy and to impoverish the American people? Please, call, e-mail or fax Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe and Reps. Michael Michaud and Tom Allen. They represent us in Washington, D.C., and they need to know that we can’t bear another winter of high fuel prices along with increasingly expensive food products. Cold November is only six months away.

Gerrard W. Rudmin is an optometrist in Dexter.