Cascade Business News recently posted a commentary from the Washington Policy Institute on banning plastic bags making the claim that “banning the bags actually may be a net negative for the environment, yielding little environmental benefit while increasing carbon emissions and other impacts.”
The e-blast of this commentary galvanized a heated debate on our website blog. Most of the comments were not favorable to the Policy Institute’s claims stating “that it takes the least amount of energy to produce a standard plastic bag ignores the cost of the clean up of said plastic bags…mainly because we never intend to clean it up.”
But for those against the ban on plastic bags the rhetoric was somewhat more direct, “In other words we are spending time and money on feel-good actions for which there is no current scientific proof of any benefit. It’s time the greenies started proving the benefit of these policies. If they can’t we need to tell them to sit down and shut up.” Yikes!
This was one of my favorites, “Where does Cascade Business News find these clowns to write these articles? Is it not obvious to everyone that reusing bags is better than using a new bag every time you shop (I have been using my Trader Joe’s bags for over ten years). To hear a greed-driven conservative use science to make a point is laughable. Greed driven conservatives have been creating their own scientific facts for decades. I enjoy Cascade Business News for the local business news, but the corporate driven conservative opinion garbage is just that garbage. I’ll tell what new fad/trend I would like to see from greed driven conservatives – honesty.”
Someone else wrote how disappointed they were that we would print this kind of commentary from such a conservative group, “Please be more sensitive when choosing the articles you publish and at the very least publish two opposing articles so your readers can make their own assertions.”
We think all of the dialogue is simply fabulous. It’s exactly why we publish commentaries that not everyone will agree with – to insight thoughtful discussions of important issues of the day. Thanks for participating. pha
