By Debra J. Saunders
Sunday, December 15, 2013
For five years, California state Sen. Alex Padilla has
been pushing a bill to ban grocers and large retailers from giving away
single-use plastic bags. In May, he came close; his SB 405 fell 3 votes short
of the 21 needed to pass in the state Senate. On Thursday, Padilla announced
that he will try again in January. "I am convinced that a statewide policy
is only a matter of time," quoth Padilla in a statement.
He's probably right. When Sacramento scolds decide that
they've got the right to tell law-abiding taxpayers what they cannot do -- for
their own good -- there's no stopping that train.
In 2007, San Francisco became the first city in America
to prohibit grocers from giving away single-use plastic bags. Then-Supervisor
Ross Mirkarimi boasted that his "first-in-the-nation" ban would spark
similar legislation. In 2012, Ess Eff's plastic bag ban expanded to apply to
all retailers. In October, the Special City's nanny bag law required
restaurants to charge a dime for each paper takeout and delivery bag.
Politicians in search of easy headlines followed
Mirkarimi's lead. Other cities -- including San Jose and Los Angeles -- passed
their own bans.
A statewide bill by Assemblyman Marc Levine won the
support of the California Grocers Association, as it promised "uniformity
of experience" for shoppers and, more importantly, big retailers, which
would have gotten to keep the bag fee.
It never ceases to amaze me how willingly Californians
agree to be treated like sheep. Liberals are supposed to believe in choice --
but lawmakers happily abandon that mantra when they spy an opportunity to tell
working people and shoppers what they cannot do.
In Sacramento, they don't even have to establish the need
for their nanny laws, the science behind their nanny laws or the economics
behind their nanny laws. The left has tapped into the guilt Americans feel for
consuming groceries, clothes, stupid purchases. With the ban on bags, politicians
have become the new priests. Their message: You can buy tons of crap -- but you
have to atone by putting your purchases into sackcloth.
Do I exaggerate? Consider that Padilla's SB 405 exempted
food stamp recipients because, he told me in April, he feared a bag ban would
have a negative "impact on low-income families." As if their bags are
different.
"It's a backlash against the consumption
society," Sterling Burnett, senior fellow of the National Center for
Policy Analysis. Burnett examined six cities, including San Francisco, that had
banned the free distribution of single-use plastic bags, only to find no proof
that the bans save cities money as sponsors promised.
Plastic bags account for such a small amount of landfill
-- less than 1 percent -- he explained, that banning these flimsy receptacles
doesn't really change a city's waste stream. The problem with bag banners is,
Burnett added, "you only talk about the benefits of getting rid of it. You
ignore the costs of the other option."
The other option is reusable bags. A 2011 U.K.
Environment Agency study found that reusable cloth bags have to be used more
than 131 times to have less of a greenhouse gas impact than once-used
high-density polyethylene bags.
Now you see reusable bags everywhere. When my county's
ban began, I had one reusable bag. Now I cannot count all the cloth bags I have
stashed at work, in my car and at home. They don't look all that healthy, so I
doubt I'll reuse them more than 100 times.
At least I know enough to wash reusable bags. Most
consumers do not wash their sacks in hot water; they risk putting their
groceries in a germ incubator.
To sum up: Single-use bag bans don't really reduce
greenhouse gases; they encourage the use of cloth bags that can be hazardous to
your health; and if you choose to opt out because it's healthier and more
convenient, you get nickeled and dimed when you go shopping. City politicians
love to come up with taxes that are supposed to discourage what they consider
to be bad behavior -- buying Happy Meals, drinking soda, maybe, and, it seems,
spending money in San Francisco stores.
Mayor Ed Lee once defended the city's bag ban: "The
intent was never to nickel or dime anybody. But if it takes 10 cents to remind
somebody that their habits are in their control, I think that's something we're
willing to consider doing."
Amazing. In that spirit, I recommend charging the mayor a
dime for every mile he travels during one of his many greenhouse gas-emitting
trade trips to China. I guess it's OK to shop in China.
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