Plastic bags

Cloth is the better alternative

A letter writer expresses anger at being handed one item, a pen, in a plastic bag recently while shopping ("At least fill up plastic bags, please," @issue, July 30). Don't get mad; simply return the bag to the cashier.

The better alternative in supermarkets is to buy and use cloth bags, available in most stores. This is a solution, and it helps a great deal.

GEORGE E. GRANADE

Athens

Punish Blue Cross for privacy breach

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia must be held accountable for their privacy breach, and need to pay the consequences for their errors ("Private medical data exposed," Page One, July 29).

May I suggest that an equitable punishment be that state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine require a reduction in customers' premiums for a while? Blue Cross sure doesn't let patients get away with any breaches. One late payment and you're out.

ARNOLD SIMON

Atlanta

Hypocritical GOP benefits only those in rigid categories

I don't recognize the GOP a recent letter describes ("Society too dependent on entitlements," @issue, July 29). The GOP allows people to live their lives? Maybe, if you're white and heterosexual and patriotic and religious or religious-acting.

The GOP is the party of life? That's a possibility if you're not Iraqi or in the military. Or if you're not a convicted criminal or if you're not a suspected terrorist.

The GOP helps everyone achieve a meaningful life? Oh sure, as long as you're a wealthy conservative.

The GOP I know is the epitome of hypocrisy. And those who support its agenda either profit from it personally or they're not paying very close attention.

ERIC PEARSON

Atlanta

We need to drill now to get lower gas prices later

I keep reading opinion pieces ("Oil drilling off coast a dead end," @issue, July 29) and letters to the editor that drilling for oil is a waste of time, as it would be years before any results would be effective.

Did these people go to college? Did they graduate? Is the analogy lost on them that drilling now, even though results may not be felt for a few years, will pay off with greater returns for the U.S. later? Even the threat of drilling now has had the effect of reducing the futures contracts on oil, thus reducing the price of gas at the pump.

SCOTT WILLIAMS

Villa Rica

True cost of nuclear power is too high

If the American public is really supporting nuclear power, as Nolan E. Hertel asserts, it is because it is being misled ("Has the time come for nuclear power? Yes," @issue, July 27).

Hertel says that nuclear energy only costs 1.7 cents per kilowatt-hour. He is only considering the cost of the fuel. He is not including the capital cost of building the plants, now estimated to be up to $12 billion per reactor.

In addition, operating costs, waste management, decommissioning and externalities bring the true cost of nuclear-generated electricity up to approximately 30 cents per kilowatt-hour.

In addition to the cost, nuclear plants take too long to build to be a meaningful solution to global warming. We need to produce 100 percent of our electricity with renewables within 10 years. Nuclear power is not a renewable energy source.

JEANNINE HONICKER

LaGrange