We Saved The Bag!

Today was the day!  Whew!  It's all over.  The County Council voted 7-0 to accept the ESB's recommendation to "take no action" on the plastic bag ban and tax.  I am thankful that this is over!

Stay tuned for my next project on government accountability.

For now, thank you for all of the support on this issue.  I could not have done this alone!

Plastic Bags At the County Council on Friday August 14, 2015

Hey all you BAG PEOPLE out there! 

Here it is!  The day we've all been waiting for, for months.  The County Council will hear the plastic bag discussion on Friday, August 14, 2015, at NOON ( yes that is 12 PM -- in the middle of the day).  That is FIVE days from today, as I write this.

Things to remember:

1.  Los Alamos does not want a plastic bag ban and tax.  We'd like to choose for ourselves how we carry home our stuff.

2.  The Environmental Sustainability Board has voted, TWICE now, to "Take No Action" on this issue.

3.  Even the Sierra Club admits they have lost.  So let's just let this issue go away -- like a dandylion puff in the breeze, or in other words, without much fuss.

4.  The Rs on our Council: Councilors Chrobocsinski, Reiss, and Girrens have made their positions clear, that this is, and always has been a waste of time and resources, and that it is government overreach.

5.  The Ds on our Council: Councilors Henderson, Israelevitz, O'Leary, and Sheehey, voted to keep this issue going in April.  I hope they have changed their minds since. 

Letter to Council: TAKE NO ACTION

Dear Councilors,

I know you will take up the plastic bag issue again, soon.

You all know, where I stand, and where my grass-roots citizens Group, Save the Bag: Los Alamos, stands on banning and taxing plastic shopping bags.  We oppose the petition, and all efforts to ban and tax plastic shopping bags in Los Alamos County.

Over the course of the last few months, I have attended the three meetings the ESB has held on this issue.  In the June and July meetings the board members voted twice to TAKE NO ACTION on this issue.  In the June meeting the vote was 3-3.  In the July meeting the vote was 4-2.  Some of them set aside their personal beliefs for this vote.  I commend their leadership in doing that, and ask that you do the same.  In speaking with some of you on this issue, I know you want this ban.  You think it will be beneficial to the environment and to Los Alamos.  I have previously sent you four white papers, written by my colleague, Becky Chamerberlin, with non-industry, and academic data on this issue -- as requested by Councilors Henderson and Sheehey.  If you have read Becky's papers, you will see that a ban and tax on plastic shopping bags will not help Los Alamos, the environment, or the people and business of our town in any way.  (If you have not read Becky's papers, please follow the link to our blog, HERE to read this information.)

Action Item: Write the County Council

ACTION TIME!

Bag People, listen up ... the County Council will be taking up the plastic bag ban & tax issue one more time in the next few weeks (exact date TBA). Now is the time to write the Councilors and ask them to:

1 - Take no action on the bag ban and tax, in other words kill it, in accordance with public wishes and the recommendation of the ESB (who voted TWICE to take no action on this).

2 - Not to waste any more public money and time on this issue. The ESB recommended a public education campaign paid for with your tax dollars. We don't need this, as we are intelligent enough to make our own decisions without government coercion. 
 

3 - Finally, kindly remind the Council that the community is overwhelmingly opposed to this measure by an 4 to 1 margin, that's 80% to 20%. It might also be good to mention that you will not be voting for them in the next time their seat comes up for re-election if they vote for a bag ban and tax, and that you, along with the members of this group, will be actively working to unseat them as well if they vote for a ban and/or tax.

Their email is: countycouncil@lacnm.us. Write them today, don't delay!

Thank you, let's win this fight, we're almost there! Join us on Facebook for more updates and share our blog with your friends!

July ESB Meeting Summary

I realized today that I did not write up a summary of the July 16th ESB meeting.  Sorry about that.   It's summer and no one wants to talk about plastic bags, especially me, at this point. 

The ESB meeting started with Member Susie Havemann introducing a motion to ban bags, there were also other points, which included directing county staff to research the issue more, etc.  Of course this was very frustrating for me and members of Save the Bag: Los Alamos.  The ESB voted at the June meeting to recommend that the Council TAKE NO ACTION on this issue.  But here we were, once again, trying for a do-over, as is typical of the progressive movement.

As was mentioned in the June discussion, the members of the ESB realized that the community was not behind this and so they set aside their personal views and did the right thing and voted to stop this issue.  Yes, the right thing, if Jody Benson is reading this.  This is an example of true leadership, which is something that Sierra Club President Mark Jones droned on about in his presentation to the ESB in June.  You might want to take notes on that Mark and Jody.

After a brief discussion the ESB, again, by a vote of 4-2, voted that the Council TAKE NO ACTION on this issue, but rather, develop a public education campaign to reduce plastic bag use.  I am not happy with any more money being spent on this issue, and I think a public education campaign paid for by the County is a misplaced effort, but I can live with it.  I think if this issue is so important to the Sierra Club and League of Women Voters, they need to spend their time and money to educate the public.

So what is next?

The Council will have to take the issue up, one more time.  We ask that you contact them and ask that they accept the ESB's two time recommendation to TAKE NO ACTION on this issue and let it die. 

Los Alamos has more important things do, namely gearing up for the Manhattan Project National Park development.  As an aside, while we've been sniping over plastic bags and chickens, Oakridge has spent over a million dollars to try and land the park headquarters in their town.  Sometimes, there are just no words for the stupidity that seems to run rampant in Los Alamos.  This is one of those times.  (Well, there are words, but this is a PG rated blog, and I gave up swearing a long time ago).

Contact the council at: countycouncil@lacnm.us or use this link HERE, to email them individually.  The Council phone number is,  663-1750,  if you want to call and leave them a message.

Thank you for your continued support.  Let's see this to the finish line!  Please write the Council and get a friend to write in as well.  Make sure to join us on Facebook for more updates!

July ESB Meeting: Final Recommendation

The plastic bag debate is not quite over.  I knew that after June's ESB meeting.  The ESB will be meeting on Thursday, July 16th, at 5:30pm, at the White Rock fire station, to discuss their final recommendation to the County Council. 

If you can come and be a warm body in the room, that would be excellent.  We need to be there to hold them accountable for their decision of last month, that the County Council "take no action" on this issue. 

See the agenda HERE.

If you have any questions, please use the contact form on the right side bar to contact us.   Thank you again for all of the support.  Please join us on Facebook as well, and share our blog.  This is almost over, just a few more steps to the finish line.

Research on Plastic Bags

Becky Chamberlin wrote a series of white papers to the ESB this week on plastic bag bans.  They were very good.  I encourage everyone to take a look at them.  They are PDF files, stored on my google drive.  Click to see the document.  You can download them if you want.

Part 1: Plastic bags as a litter source

Part 2: Plastic bags as a municipal waste source

Part 3: Plastic bags as greenhouse gas generators

Part 4: Implementation and unintended consequences

Becky took her source material from scientific and academic sources, and shied away from sources from the plastics industry and the environmentalists. 

We will be sharing these with the County Council too.