Oil prices

Mission accomplished!

I find it amusing that people write letters blaming Congress for gas prices. When George Bush and Dick Cheney took office, oil was $27 a barrel. Both have direct ties to the oil industry and Saudi Arabia. (Bush's first few oil industry executive jobs were gifts from Saudi friends. Bush, incidentally, has had a Republican-majority Congress for nearly all of his two terms.) Oil is now [above] $127 a barrel. Mission accomplished!

MAX T. WEYRICK

Marietta

Blame the ecologists

Politicians and the media are playing the "blame game," blaming oil companies for the high price of gasoline. It is not the oil companies that have raised the price of foreign oil —- that would be OPEC. It is the oil companies that have been prevented from building more refineries, digging in ANWR and off the coast for oil and in the western U.S. for oil shale. So if you want to blame someone for the high price of foreign oil and the fact that we are not energy independent, blame the ecologists and the politicians who pander to them.

MARCIA KARON

Atlanta

It's the lack of refineries

In the wake of the oil crisis brought about by skyrocketing crude oil prices, many commentators, including most Republicans, clamor for more drilling and in the process accuse Democrats of scuttling those moves.

Suppose we decide to do more drilling, then how are we going to refine the crude? Are we going to send the crude oil to China for processing and reshipment back? We have not built an oil refinery in our country for decades. The oil companies do not want to invest in refineries because it is capital-intensive and Wall Street will punish them for not showing profits every quarter.

It is not the Democrats who are holding back, but the big oil corporations. Even if we have a refinery, how can you guarantee that the owners will not manipulate production rates to jack up prices?

RAMAKRISHN RAMAN

Tucker

We need an all-out effort

The only way we are going to solve our "energy crisis" is to stop complaining about gas prices and end our dependence on foreign oil. Build more and efficient oil refineries, drill more oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, use coal shale-oil and build more nuclear power plants (if the French can do it safely, why not us)! More efficient home and cars —- yes! Thermal power —- yes! Ethanol —- remains to be seen!

To do this will take the resolve of the entire populus and Congress. Fat chance for Congress and the liberal media to squelch their special interests and get on board. Face reality —- we are in an economic "war" with the Arabs and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.

Tell Congress to get on board. Vote your intellect and back candidates who have the will to attack this problem. John McCain —- long shot, but maybe. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, no way. It is going to take a total effort like John F. Kennedy's commitment to go to the moon in 10 years. What is at stake is our way of life. There will be no second chance.

JACK HOWARD

Tucker

Congress provides a laugh

I want to thank Congress for providing a bitterwsweet laugh and a poignant lesson on leadership. Congress voted overwhelmingly to cancel oil shipments to the strategic petroleum reserve. Then the sponsor of this legislation, Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), had the audacity to hail this paltry, meaningless effort as though it were some triumph. It will have little impact on the price of gas. According to government sources, the reduction is the equivalent of halting imports from that oil-producing giant, Belgium.

In 2006, Democrats took control of the House and Senate and promised things would change. Unfortunately, they have kept their promises. The dollar is weaker. The cost of food and gas has risen, and the stock market continues to drift. If this is a demonstration of the Democrats' leadership, courage and bold legislative action, one has to chuckle at the irony of Barack Obama's mantra of "change" as it will require considerable change not only for the country but more so within his own political party.

JOHN WILEY

Marietta

Sunday alcohol sales

Responses to "Small businessman's big fight," Metro, May 18

GOP contributors have clout

Kudos to the AJC for exposing the part that liquor store owner Richard Tucker played in stopping the Sunday sales of alcoholic beverages.

Back when I was young, it was the standard belief that Baptists and bootleggers joined forces to keep legal alcoholic beverages out of the hands of sinners and fools like me. The Baptists, because they knew what was best for me, and the bootleggers, because they wanted the profits from alcohol sales. Now the bootleggers have been replaced by legal alcohol salesmen, but the profit motive remains in place.

Our Republican governor and Legislature can be sure that by keeping this issue away from the voters, they have shown their true colors: "What's good for big-money Republican contributors is good for all Georgia citizens."

HOWARD A. STACY

Atlanta

Trying expanding product line to groceries, Beanie Babies

Explaining his lobbying against Sunday alcohol sales, liquor store owner Richard Tucker complains that "It's not a level playing field between [liquor stores] and the grocery stores and convenience stores. ... Many are already open 24 hours a day. They have a lot of items to sell. We just have one —- alcohol."

Poor thing. Instead of crying over his beer and competing via government rather than the marketplace, Tucker might consider expanding his product line to include groceries, Beanie Babies or whatever else might float his boat.

FRANK STEPHENSON

Rome

Commuter rail

Responses to "I want my commuter rail!" @issue, May 16

Seek out the next-best alternative

In response to the column by Cara Aliek of Kennesaw, I say: Take the bus! Aliek could easily find two GRTA/XPRESS bus routes (480 and 481) and three Cobb Community Transit bus routes (100, 101 and 102) that go right through or near Kennesaw. I'm sure one would suit Aliek's needs. Each goes to the center of the "ATL" MARTA stations, where she could then go where she'd like. There might not be commuter rail yet, but if you really mean what you say, seek out the next-best alternative.

I take a bus, a train (MARTA) and a bus (GRTA/XPRESS) to and from work for my commute (Atlanta to Norcross). And even though I can take a bus from the Midtown station to about three blocks from home, I often get my daily exercise by walking from the train station home about two miles. Riding the bus and train are soooo relaxing. The first thing you'll notice are your shoulders feel like they've been massaged. Also, you can take a book, radio, iPod, whatever, and watch those other people in their cars.

BRANT McCANLESS

Atlanta

Legislators refuse to provide funding

Like Cara Aliek of Kennesaw, I want my commuter rail. But there's no need to organize a research team, as she suggests. Detailed research has already been completed, the most recent example being a Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce study this year that concluded "the ridership is there" to support seven commuter rail lines linking Atlanta with Macon, Athens, Gainesville, Canton, Bremen, Senoia and Madison.

That study and several others are gathering dust because of the Georgia General Assembly's continued refusal to provide funding. With the 2008 campaign season now under way, voters need to ask each candidate what he or she will do to get commuter rail funded during next year's legislative session.

JIM DEXTER

Decatur

Supercritical distinction: New coal plants still pollute, big time

When Dean Alford, the spokesman for Power4Georgians, states that his company's proposed Plant Washington coal-fired power plant is cleaner than older subcritical power plant designs, he is telling the truth ("Coal-fired plant will serve Georgians, cleanly," Letters, May 18). Supercritical plant designs burn hotter and use less coal than previous coal technologies, therefore making less pollution.

But as Power4Georgians' application for a pollution permit attests, his plant will pollute aplenty annually: 654 tons of PM10 (big soot particles); 374 tons of PM2.5 (fine soot particles); 3,272 tons of sulfur dioxide (you know, that acid rain stuff); 1,818 tons of nitrous oxides; and 124 tons of volatile organic compounds (combined, they make ground-level ozone —- dangerous smog); 10,906 tons of carbon monoxide (poisonous gas); 182 tons of sulfuric acid (kills trees); 1,220 pounds of lead; and a mere 120 pounds of toxic mercury. Not only that, Alford fails to mention the 5 to 6 million tons of carbon dioxide greenhouse gas his plant will spew (equivalent to maybe 850,000 cars on the road). Clean energy? Really? Plant Washington threatens our health and environment. It's time to clean and decommission our old coal power plants in favor of alternative sources, not build new ones.

RICHARD EPTING

Epting, of Decatur, is the chair of Smart Energy Solutions, Georgia Chapter, Sierra Club.

Education has suffered, not gained

Jim Wooten's column stated that the state Legislature has been "one of the most productive" when it comes to education since the GOP took control ("Education and health care bills worthy of GOP," @issue, May 18).

This is wrong, and leads people to believe that education hasn't suffered from austerity cuts that have wrecked the budgets of school systems around the state. Teachers get paid less and less, and our students get shafted. In fact, the AJC stated in "Politics doesn't pay (enough) for some" (Page One, April 30) that one [state] representative took in $38,000 last year, well above a starting teacher's salary, especially when lawmakers are only in session a few weeks a year.At $400 per day minimum, these elected officials get paid twice what an average teacher makes. We're 48th in SAT scores in the nation, and Wooten thinks the House is being productive?

ERIC GRAY

Oakwood

A bit disingenuous about GOP ads

Cynthia Tucker argues that GOP ads linking Louisiana and Mississippi Democrats to Barack Obama were appeals to racism ("Shabby tactic of race baiting shows its age," @issue, May 18). Her evidence? Tucker says little about the content of the ads; instead, she reaches back 20 years to the Willie Horton caper and says, in effect, "See? The Republicans played the race card then, so they must be playing it now."

The trouble is, the current ads attack Obama and white House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as big-government and high-tax liberals, not as minority members. And at least one of the ads pairs Pelosi with Hillary Clinton, also white, instead of Obama.

However, I agree with Tucker's wider argument that the race card is losing its appeal no matter who plays it, white or black.

NEIL MURRAY

Lilburn