Green efforts to ban plastic bags rely on deception

Many years ago environmentalists took on noble causes--such as ending the dumping of poisons into our rivers and streams. That battle has been largely won. Rather than declare victory, the greenies have moved on to attacks on prosperity, such as cap and trade, and nitpicking--such as banning plastic bags.

That last one is a particularly dishonest effort. On the vaudeville circuit, following a kid act was tough. Folks naturally cheer on children stepping up.

Not too far from where I live, 13 year-old Abby Goldberg of Grayslake, Illinois sprearheaded a petition drive to ban plastic bags there. She scored a meeting with Gov. Pat Quinn. Wow, with a public-pension system that is underfunded by at least $130 billion, Quinn has at least one much more important item on his plate. When Goldberg is an adult, if she still lives in Illinois, she will have to pay for Quinn's failure on pension reform. But I digress...

In a telephone interview with a WGN-TV reporter, Goldberg admitted that the petition idea came from a radical environmentalist (and adult) Huffington Post blogger, Ben Zolno, who also assisted in the wording of that petition.

Zolno believes that plastic bags "damn…children and their planet for eternity."

In Dallas, a behind-closed-doors plan to ban plastic bags and eliminate (really?) solid waste by 2040 was devised surrepticiously with little input from the group what supposed to have written it. The controversy led to the demotion--but not the firing--of Dallas' longtime director of sanitation.

If banning plastic bags is the right thing to do--why do environmentalists resort to deception to advance their cause?

Technorati tags:california jobs economy plastic bags business economy news politics nanny state