Readers write

Brian Kemp and what might have been

The past couple of days, the AJC’s Top 5 newsletter has included pieces about Gov. Brian Kemp, his political gambles, and his being the “election night’s biggest loser.” Though I haven’t agreed with Kemp’s entire agenda during his time in office, I voted for him twice and think that he has largely done a good job as governor.

It’s hard to get excited about the choices for his successor, especially when both Republicans and Democrats initially had impressive candidates who didn’t get past first base. I’m speaking of Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and former Lt. Gov. and now Democrat Geoff Duncan, both of whom deserve some sort of profile in courage award for being principled public servants.

In the Senate race, Kemp should have run for the position himself if he wanted a Republican to replace U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff. His pick, Derek Dooley, I thought, though a decent enough guy, ran a weak campaign. Every time I saw him on TV, it was Kemp, not Dooley, doing most of the talking.

What do Derek Dooley and Mike Collins have in common? As Jon Ossoff observed, in addition to saying a lot of other unflattering things about Collins, the GOP nominee would have never been elected to Congress were it not for the fact that his “daddy” served in the position. Same for Derek Dooley. Where would he be without legendary UGA football coach Vince Dooley?

I haven’t heard of any campaign to draft Raffensperger for Senate and Duncan for Governor, so things will just have to play out with the current slate. I’ll be watching, all the while wondering about what might have been.

GARLAND WATKINS, HUNTERSVILLE, NC

Consumers shouldn’t bear burden of plastic trash

Maybe Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr should have checked locally before suing California for trying to bring some order to the plastics packaging industry.

In May 2025, DeKalb County informed residents that they can no longer place plastic No. 4, No. 5, and No. 6 in their curbside bins. They were left on their own to figure out what to do with all the containers, lids, and flowerpots they thought they could recycle curbside. And that’s after they scrutinized each piece to find the tiny triangle with an even smaller number.

Solving the problem of the plastic packaging deluge should not be left to consumers, who often have no other options at the point of purchase. Producers should take responsibility for the pollution their products cause. We ought to be applauding California’s attempt to unburden us of the heavy load of plastic trash.

Georgia needs to drop its lawsuit and find ways to help DeKalb and other counties deal with the mountains of unrecyclable plastic waste.

JERELYN JORDAN, ATLANTA

El Niño will be bad, but renewables offer climate hope

Good news: the worst-case scenario for climate change by the year 2100 now appears unlikely, as there has been progress in renewable energy. The bad news is that “climate change makes once-rare coastal flooding more likely …” and “El Niño is here: Scientists fear it’ll be big, bad, and costly …” (both from the AJC, June 12).

Since the oceans have absorbed 90% of the heat from burning fossil fuels, we may not be sweating as much yet, but we are feeling the effects in flooding, storms and the heat-driven El Niño. Can the oceans continue absorbing heat, sparing us the wrath of fossil-fuel-driven land heating? With the droughts, forest fires, and heat domes, have we perhaps been double whammied?

The bad news is that the Trump administration is trying to thwart renewable energy and promoting dirty, planet-destroying fossil fuels.

The good news is that industry, local governments and science are full speed ahead with planet-saving solutions to climate change.