California plastic bag ban goes down
Finally, California shows some sense. Lawmakers trashed an onerous, ill-timed, empty-gesture plastic bag ban pushed by radical greens this week:
California lawmakers have rejected a bill seeking to ban plastic shopping bags after a contentious debate over whether the state was going too far in trying to regulate personal choice.
The Democratic bill, which failed late Tuesday, would have been the first statewide ban, although a few California cities already prohibit their use.
…The bill, AB1998, called for the ban to take effect in supermarkets and large retail stores in 2012. It would have applied to smaller stores in 2013.
Republicans and some Democrats opposed it, saying it would add an extra burden on consumers and businesses at a time when many already are struggling financially.
…The Senate took final action at the very end of the legislative session, reflecting how difficult it had been to muster support. The bill received just 14 votes in the Senate, seven short of the majority it needed.
The inconvenient truth is that the eco-propaganda about plastic bag perils is so much hype. Don’t take it from me. Take it from environmental scientists themselves:
“The Government is irresponsible to jump on a bandwagon that has no base in scientific evidence,” said Lord Taverne, the chairman of Sense about Science. “This is one of many examples where you get bad science leading to bad decisions which are counter-productive. Attacking plastic bags makes people feel good but it doesn’t achieve anything.”
Campaigners say that plastic bags pollute coastlines and waterways, killing or injuring birds and livestock on land and, in the oceans, destroying vast numbers of seabirds, seals, turtles and whales. However, the Times has established that there is no scientific evidence to show that the bags pose any direct threat to marine mammals.
They “don’t figure” in the majority of cases where animals die from marine debris, said David Laist, the author of a seminal 1997 study on the subject. Most deaths were caused when creatures became caught up in waste produce. “Plastic bags don’t figure in entanglement,” he said. “The main culprits are fishing gear, ropes, lines and strapping bands. Most mammals are too big to get caught up in a plastic bag.”
He added: “The impact of bags on whales, dolphins, porpoises and seals ranges from nil for most species to very minor for perhaps a few species.For birds, plastic bags are not a problem either.”
The central claim of campaigners is that the bags kill more than 100,000 marine mammals and one million seabirds every year. However, this figure is based on a misinterpretation of a 1987 Canadian study in Newfoundland, which found that, between 1981 and 1984, more than 100,000 marine mammals, including birds, were killed by discarded nets. The Canadian study did not mention plastic bags.
Fifteen years later in 2002, when the Australian government commissioned a report into the effects of plastic bags, its authors misquoted the Newfoundland study, mistakenly attributing the deaths to “plastic bags.”
The figure was latched on to by conservationists as proof that the bags were killers. For four years the “typo” remained uncorrected. It was only in 2006 that the authors altered the report, replacing “plastic bags” with “plastic debris”. But they admitted: “The actual numbers of animals killed annually by plastic bag litter is nearly impossible to determine.”
In a postscript to the correction they admitted that the original Canadian study had referred to fishing tackle, not plastic debris, as the threat to the marine environment.
Regardless, the erroneous claim has become the keystone of a widening campaign to demonise plastic bags.
David Santillo, a marine biologist at Greenpeace, told the Times that bad science was undermining the government’s case for banning the bags. “It’s very unlikely that many animals are killed by plastic bags,” he said. “The evidence shows just the opposite. We are not going to solve the problem of waste by focusing on plastic bags. “It doesn’t do the government’s case any favours if you’ve got statements being made that aren’t supported by the scientific literature that’s out there. With larger mammals it’s fishing gear that’s the big problem. On a global basis plastic bags aren’t an issue. It would be great if statements like these weren’t made.”
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Yes! (fist pump, victory lap)
Plastic bags are the least of California’s problems. But I’m glad to hear there’s still some sanity there.
Sanity from the CA legislature?!
Well, even a broke clock is right twice per day.
Okay, now throw out that stupid incandescent light bulb ban, too.
Oh, and how about letting property owners clear brush? You know, all that wildfire fodder?
I guess the greenies could get some attorney to send this to the 9th circuit court, they overturn everything!
L
Isn’t it weird that a State which is bankrupt, has time for this harassment? Now that I think about it, isn’t this what caused the bankruptcy in the first place?
Or, what’s-his-face in San Fransicko.
He will rule that plastic shopping bags are an artifact from a bygone era.
Woo-hoo! It’s just not the same running around with scissors and a paper bag over my head.
Speaking of the nanny state, I’m wondering what you government haters think about Paris Hilton’s coke bust. She’s facing up to 4 years for possession of .8 grams (really nothing more than fun for a night or two). Does that strike you as excessive, if not completely inappropriate?
We don’t think of Paris Hilton: Obama and the Democrats have the country in such a horrendous mess, there’s no time to waste on celebrity gossip and shenanigans.
What does the Law say?
WHat part of ‘illegal’ is hard to understand?
Don’t throw ‘em away, California greenies. Halloween’s coming up, so just gather up those bags and voila… “Johnny Space Commander Mask.”
No it doesn’t. They should tack on a couple more years for her lying about it. But as we all know she will probably get out after 3 days in jail. I love how you liberals try to make victims out of anyone, even Paris Hilton.
Lets face it. Without the drug users, we would not have the drug cartels who have been taking over much of the land in Southern Arizona, and who have been killing innocent people in Mexico. What part of those deaths is Hilton responsibile for?
No this has nothing to do with a nanny state. Nanny states don’t hold people personally responsible.
This just in…. another hijacking attempt was thwarted today, when members of the MichelleMalkin blog told Red State Skeptic that they were “Not interested”.
In another victory in CA last night, the open carry ban didn’t go through. And neither did the registration of rifles and shotguns.
I think plastic bags could be very beneficial to California if most of their legislators were to tie them tightly over their heads.
Not to mention that plastic grocery bags have a million and one uses/reuses at both home and school – in my classroom, I used them to store everything from concept manipulatives and student projects, to text books and and as totes; at home, we’ve used them to store decorations, tools, clothes and even as garbage can liners.
Good for common-sense Californians in making the correct decision!
So RSS, we have made most of the vice crimes in the U.S. into gubmint sanctioned and/or licensed revenue generators ofver the last 30 years. Gambling became legal to save the schools. Prostitution is now advertised in the yellow pages and Craigs list. Marijuana is legal and will solve the state’s fiscal woes. Pornography is now free on the internet and watched by millions of good hard working gubmint employees. We have bars in every gamblin venue in the country so we can liquor up those suckers and get their childrens lunch money. SO NOW WE NEED TO LEGALIZE COCAINE, AND SINCE CRACK IS JUST COCAINE, LET’S LEALIZE THAT. IS THERE ANYTHING YOU LIBS CONSIDER A CRIME? TERRORISM IS JUST A POOR SOUL NEEDING HUGS TO CURE HIS ANGER ISSUES, AND HEROIN ADDICTS ARE JUST POOR SOULS NEEDING TAXPAYER FUNDED MEDICAL HELP.
BINGO!! By the way, I use plastic bags for lots of things, including lining my small waste baskets, etc. I do make sure I cut up the plastic rings that hold 6-packs of pop. They really are dangerous to wild animals. But using common sense is a lot different than having common sense legislated!! Big Government better get out of our faces pretty soon or the result won’t be pleasant for those idiots. November will be their first clue, but the landslide defeat of progressives won’t change the hard core idiots like our very own POTUS who is completely stuck on stupid.
One more thing…I see the troll Red State Skeptic has turned up again. Can we please ignore this progressive and stop giving him a voice? It would be different if he had something sensible to say. I don’t mind discussing issues with people who disagree with me, but he is just hateful and has nothing valuable to add to the discussion. When he called our MM a “bottom-feeder”, I thought that was pretty disrespectful considering that she allows him to post comments here. He is her guest.
Even though she’s hot, I could give a crap what happens to Paris Hilton. It’s too bad this issue can’t have a more sympathetic, um, victim.
Good point… but of course it’s only because drugs are illegal in the first place that we have the problems you’re talking about.
It’s not big government to tell people what substances they can and cannot consume?
Should I take my shoes off? I’m pretty sure “your” MM doesn’t mind the extra traffic and ad revenue that dissenters bring to her blog.
The nanny state eco-nuts have been all over the logic map. On the one hand they want to protect birds from plastic bag but not wind power propellers. Don’t build a border fence because it prevents animal migration, but illegals trampling and trashing fragile ecosystems is ok. Don’t drill in Anwar but deep sea drilling was ok till we had an explosion. Bio-fuels are good even when it take more energy to produce them and give lower gas mileage. Don’t pollute here but knock yourself out having third world countries produce unlimited smog. Do these nuts hear how stupid their arguments are?
Perhaps the democrats that proposed this law will find the bags useful when they clean out their offices after the election.
All right, Californicans, your moment of lucidity is over. Now, proceed to elect a stupid governor, a stupid senator, and a Democrat-majority legislature in November.
Without cocaine users, my gosh, I think the Democrat Party would lose most of it’s voters…
Aw, such a pity the nannies lost.
I’m going grocery shopping this afternoon. Think I’ll have them bag it in double plastic just to celebrate.
Good thing too, otherwise what would Pelosi wear over her head for date night? She is afterall, part of the Two-Bagger Party!
So you would be for banning the FDA and all laws governing prescriptions? If so, I would also support eliminating laws about narcotics.
If she put her arms through the carry loops, you don’t have to worry about it coming off.
Beeep Beeeep Beeeep….Hijack attempt still in progress.
We sometimes forget, and though it seems almost impossible, Cali still has a large number of conservatives. THANK GOD! (they hate that don’t they?)
Completely off topic. This could get you banned. Keep it up.
On September 1st, 2010 at 12:42 pm,
Yes, I am a bit surprise the conservatives haven’t already abandoned that state. I mean, the weather is nice, but mudslides, fires, earthquakes and mooonbats are everywhere. I live in Minnesota. Conservatives are welcome here. We NEED them! And the best-kept secret is that winter is beautiful, if a bit long. Try it, you’ll like it! But don’t tell the progressives. We have more than enough of them already!!
So far, though, we still have plastic bags here. Al Franken might try to change that.
It wasn’t so long ago that the greenies forced us to switch from paper bags to plastic. After all, we had to save the trees, since, once chopped down, they cannot grow back. Oh wait, yes they they can, since they are the original renewable, greenhouse gas absorbing, resource. And paper bags are biodegradable to boot!
I remember when the “Green Movement” pushed the use of plastic bags in order to “Save the Trees.”
Now, trees are “sustainable resources,” and ripe for utilization.
One thing has not changed, however, and that is that the environmental movement follows a compass with no magnetic north…either that, or the leadership is schizophrenic, and manically manipulative.
Red State Skeptic said: nothing intelligent today.
No, I don’t want to see RSS banned. I get my daily laugh out of his attempts to make sense. He
can beIS our village idiot.RSS: What makes you think any posters on this site give a hoot that some bimbo like Hilton got busted. If there were NO users like her, there’d be no Drug Lords, Drug Gangs, Drug Wars, Drug murders, Drug robberies..I could go on ad nauseum. What point are you feebly attempting to make–legalization of narcotics? Yeah, Calderone of Mexico gave that a shot and his country is in complete ruins.
Actually, their argument was that the big corporations were raping the “Old Growth Forests,” so they could simply to make paper bags.
The emotional drivel continues, and this group of misguided souls will never be happy until the masses are digging for grubs and roots, no longer shave (anything,) and pray to GAIA at sunset. They truly are Earth’s children…and I emphasize, Children.
Professor Terguson: Good answer. Good answer. I like the way you think. I’m gonna be watching you.
Personal choice??? They’re all screwy. I wouldn’t mind them banning plastic shopping bags if they’d just get the *%$#! out of my health care.
That gets my vote….slightly schizo with a heavy lean towards manically manipulative…like trying to ban a multi-purpose, reusable biodegradable product such as plastic bags.
RSS, I usually don’t reply to comments made by trolls as yourself, but in this case I’ll make an exception…who the hell gives a crap about Paris Hilton and her drug habits? Actually her and any other pampered, spoiled, brats, that do not productively contribute to our society.
It wasn’t so long ago that the greenies forced us to switch from paper bags to plastic.
I didn’t mean to strike that all out – argh!!
I have gotten to the point where when I hear of stupid legislation being discussed in Sacramento I ignore it. It seems most of this moronic BS seems to be local state reps trying to justify their jobs (kinda like unions who spend too much money on political agendas or defending dirtbags who deserve to be fired in the first place). It must be an attempt to satisfy the moonbats that fill the spaces in L.A. and San Fran, who pray to the so called “environmental agenda”. I have to say the reps, despite how expensive it was, got it right on gasoline standards as the air quality in Los Angeles is much better, but c’mon, quit justifying future endeavors claiming this is why I have to have this job, through overzealousness.
Sacramento has spent a bunch of time debating on a law to criminalize flat screen t.v.’s. and after outlawing cell phone use while driving (can’t say I was not sick of being stuck behind teenagers texting their bff’s while swerving in and out of lanes) and wasting more time figuring out if it should extend to other “distracted” driving like tuning the radio or setting temperature controls. I could go on and on, but it never seems that real issues like illegals driving all over the road crashing into insured drivers (an important issue which should be addressed) never comes up. Even legal border crossers driving around with cars that would never pass inspection, spewing dirty exhaust fumes (I have to get my exhaust inspected every 2 years and fix it if it does not pass) and are not insured (have fun getting your insurance to fix your own car if they crash into you), but if you want to go to Mexico to do some shopping and do not buy supplemental insurance and get into an accident….good luck spending weeks in Mexico jail while your family scrambles for the money to get you out.
Unfortunately, they got their way on the so called “green” building codes, which ensures that more good paying job companies will avoid California all together. Good job Sacramento! Now time to tackle food choices for the good Californians to keep us from getting fat, and the absence of payroll taxes can be offset from cigarette sales, right? Hopefully Texas will at least be good enough to send a thank-you note for the increase in their job market.
Pasedena Phil, if you come around, do you know what happened with that petition I signed to limit the Cali legislature to part-time status? Although we know what happens when Cali reps end up with a law they don’t like, expect the court to reverse the will of the people, but at least the scare of losing their cushy full time jobs may slow this train wreck down. Sorry about the long post, but the never ending legislative ideas from the Cali elites is high blood pressure enducing.
Oh, lord…two of you now? That does it…I am going to have to get a spit shield for my monitor.
I should have read a few more posts before posting myself…fellow posters had RSS covered long before I said anything. Damn I feel I just wasted all that time and ink, there should be a lesson there somewhere.
While I’m here I’d like to point out plastic bags are dirt cheap to make, 1/10 of a cent, on top of being handy to carry ones for and other purchased items in to go home, they have multi uses, such as picking up dog doo doo. Now there is something to complain about, people with dogs that weigh over 50 lbs. and don’t have the common decency to pickup their dogs PILES of crap, and they are saving the greenies trees also. Com’ on all you greenies and tree huggers pay attention. Also the bags are a bi-product of burning material for other products and they are NOT oil based. Last and not least, if they are not made into bags guess what happens to the material, it’s burned off into the atmosphere. CARBON FOOT PRINT all you global warmests.
I would gladly give up plastic bags if we could just keep our light bulbs!! It will be a very long time before I give mine up to those mercury-filled monstrosities that don’t throw enough light for these tired old eyes!! I have stocked up on the old ones and hopefully the mercury ones will be banned soon. The progressives just have to figure out that mercury is really really bad!! MERCURY…BAD. Get it????
I should hope not. I believe in the Rush Limbaugh theory. Give them plenty of air time to demonstrate what idiots they are.
This is a running battle with the environuts, the Battle of the Plastic Bag has been won for now – next battle, some environut group will push to ban all tires on every vehicle,bicycle and in every warehouse in Ca. Evil oil don’t you know.
I remember back in 2006, Glenn Beck asked his listeners to send him all the plastic bags they could spare so he could forward them to Gavin Newsom. I completely stuffed a Priority Mail box. Great way to get rid of a few spares, and make moonbat heads asplode at the same time!
How nice it must be to live in a bubble where everyone agrees with you, and you only talk about what you want to talk about.
@21:
Sadly, many “environmentalists” appear to have an agenda which goes well outside the admirable goals of preserving breathable air, drinkable water and decent living space for us Americans.
My observation over the past 40 years is that many of them have no concept of cost-benefit ratio.
This topic to me of banning plastic grocery bags is yet another feel-good exercise where they wish to throw out the baby with the bathwater rather than do something sensible such as require all stores which use plastic bags to provide recycling containers for customers to discard their bags and the stores to transport the waste bags to an approved recycling center.
If all the stores went back to paper bags I can hear the yowling now about all those trees being cut down!
RSS…I don’t need everyone to agree with me. I just want to have logical, sensible conversations with people who are intelligent, informed, and not nasty. That lets you out. Buh-bye.
Oh, I realized in my editing I forgot to say that at least Cali got it right with the plastic bags, I meant to compare that with the right thing to do with gasoline regulations which ended the smog problems of Los Angeles. My point was the other stupid regs coming out of Sacremento and how this should have been a non-subject to begin with. I still feel that Cali should have a part-time legislative body, like Texas does. The politicos in Cali have nothing better to do then regulate what we do in our state, trying to justify their jobs.
That reminds me, the first Marxist/muslim/Mom-Jeans President is ruining the economy while ensuring that our borders remain open for the drug and human-trafficking trades and it’s not the topic here, but what do you guys think about my toenails? Too long? Too short? Maybe too squared off?
Good news but cities like Los Angeles and Santa Monica are already vowing to pass their own bans.
The green police won’t stop until they have us all living in mud huts.
How nice to ignore my response to your post. Are you willing to give up the FDA?
I’m in CA, I’m extremely conservative, and I always ask FOR the plastic bags…they make good pickup bags for my dog’s poop. Hmmm…maybe I should save up a few of these “in use” bags and send em’ to the green-weenies in LA and Santa Monica, et al, to show them my successful “recycling” efforts.
I’ll bet you could…and have!
And they won’t mention all the gas being burned to ship the paper bags vs the plastic bags either.
We don’t mind you talking RSS, we’d just like it if were talking about the same thing we’re talking about. It’s difficult to hold a conversation with someone as scatter-brained as you. Just stay on topic and we’ll ridicule your liberalism because it should be.
By the way, what you described in the blockquote above is exactly what liberals are trying to do to the intelligent people; stop them from speaking so the only voice heard is a liberal/socialst one.
No. I’m not the one who’s crazy about limited government. But if I were, I’d certainly want government to let me smoke or snort or inject anything I damn well please.
Let me guess, RSS…You already do, and have for some time!
But not what I damn well please. Why should the government tell me what medications I can or can not take? After all it is my body right? Isn’t that what you guys say when a woman wants an abortion?
Great job green weenies. First poison the water with mercury by banning incandesent light bulbs, now kill off the trees by forcing us to use paper bags.
You are killing the planet faster than industry. Keep up the good work!
Any time Cali does one thing that makes sense they’ll turn around the next day and approve something so utterly insane it reaffirms most people’s opinion. One step forward, 10 back. Growing up in the Bay Area I watched the slow change. The crazy twisted enviros that have taken over, in a great many cases, were from somewhere else. When the eastern elite arrived they determined that people who lived there simply didn’t know how to take care of it. The children of the enviros are now grown and happily put their parent’s nutty ideas to shame. The children of the enviros have been indoctinated with even crazier ideas than their parents held.
Alas, grocery stores and other large stores are still banned from providing plastic bags in San Francisco.
Never shop for groceries on a rainy day!
One more reason to vote against San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in his race for Lt. Governor of California.
Haha… snort!
‘Limited government’ doesn’t mean ‘no government.’
Do you really think we’re a bunch of anarchists?
Corkie @ #69 used the word think. That is a problem word used to describe RSS. They don’t think, so let’s use the word assume emphasizing on the first have of the word.
OOPs!! Half, not have. I went to school during the day and it is still night in CA.
No, they are becoming afraid of the angry voters, thanks to the PR by radio jocks John and Ken, who have defeated other bad bills too. It’s scary to think two guys are all that stand between us and these nuts in Sacto.
And the bill would not have banned bags; the stores would just charge us a nickel apiece for them, as dictated by the Grocery Association. Crony capitalism again.
OK, I’ve just about had it with Repubs who do the mush-mouth “it wouldn’t be a good time now” to raise taxes, ban plastic bags, etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum.
HOW ABOUT STANDING ON THE PRINCIPLE THAT SUCH SH*T INFRINGES ON PERSONAL FREEDOM???