Dear President,

        Why is pollution so common these days? Why do gas prices have to be so high? The federal tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents per gallon. Then the State of Nevada, on top of that, levies another 33.7 cents. That’s 52.1 cents a gallon going to the government. Which one is worse: gas prices or pollution?

        The first thing I want to talk about is pollution because with the pollution in the air, we could all get sick and die. Air pollution can cause death, and it also ruins the environment. It can also cause respiratory disease. Air pollution can also give people cancer. There are a couple ways we could stop air pollution; here are two of them. The main source of air pollution is automobiles. If we use solar or battery powered cars there wouldn't be as much pollution in the air.  We could also not drive our cars around so much. Maybe people could ride bikes around for awhile because when we ride bikes, it doesn't let out any pollution to mess up the ozone layer. There is another way to stop air pollution; we could get water and hydrogen powered cars and begin to drive them.

        The second thing I want to talk about is gas prices.The gas prices are $4.25 a gallon right now and it is going to be twice as much by next year. All of us who are teenagers that aren't going to get their drivers license until they are eighteen-- we won't even want to drive because gas will be too much. We will be paying at least $10.00 a gallon. We are going to have to start riding bikes to the destinations that we need to get to work/school. Can you please help us get the gas prices down to at the least $2.30 a gallon? On the paperwork that I read from 2007, it said that gas prices would be at $3.00 a gallon for a couple years, but here we are in 2008 with gas prices that are $4.25 a gallon.

   "In 1995 American drivers burned about 17 million more gallons of gasoline a day than the country produced, according to the government's Energy Information Administration. The difference was made up for by imports."1
By 2005, it was about 36 million more gallons of gas.

         I am concerned about pollution because it could kill people and the gas prices because I want to be able to drive a car when I am old enough. Can you please help me fix these concerns that I have?

 Sources:
 1 http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/17/news/economy/refineries/index.htm