Seeing through liberal scribe’s faux praise of GOP pols
As I began to read Jay Bookman’s column, “As primary runoffs showed, GOP tends to eat its own” (Opinion, Aug. 1), I had to check the byline to see if it really was “From the Left.” Approximately the first one-third of the column was praising Republicans Casey Cagle and David Shafer! However, it turns out that was only because they had lost in the primaries, and Bookman was starting his campaign for the Democratic candidate. He went on to criticize the Republican winner, Brian Kemp. I wonder if he would have written the same praise of Cagle and Shafer had they been the winners. With the Democrats, there never is heard a discouraging word about fellow progressives, as they like to call themselves now, whereas some days in the AJC it seems there are two columns “From the Left.”
JUDITH MCCARTHY, ATLANTA
As reported in “Plan to ease fuel standards OK’d” (Business, Aug. 3), the Trump administration has proposed freezing fuel-efficiency standards for cars at an average of 37 miles per gallon in 2021 instead of requiring an increase to an average of 54 mpg in 2025. This proposal is being criticized as the undoing of one of the Obama administration’s primary climate policies. However, there is a better, market-based way to reduce climate-changing emissions. We could use a market-based approach by setting a price on carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by charging an increasing fee on fossil fuels and rebating the revenues to households as monthly dividend checks. This approach, setting a price on carbon emissions, is gaining bipartisan support at the national, state and local levels. As the Trump administration cuts back Obama-era regulations, the shift to this powerful, market-based approach becomes more and more essential.
H. THEODORE HEINTZ JR., ATLANTA
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