Like most of us, I spent last Sunday tracking Taylor Swift’s plane as she made her way to see her beau win his third Super Bowl. Then, I came across an opinion column that brought me back to reality — and a low point from last year.
The piece, by Patrick Gleason of the Americans for Tax Reform, applauded North Carolina’s lawmakers for passing a budget that included a last-minute provision written by a shadowy lobbying group. That provision strips local governments of the power to regulate single-use plastic bags despite broad public support.
Why was Gleason picking a scab on a wound inflicted back in October? To trumpet a January report that purports to show that banning plastic bags in New Jersey led to an increase in plastic bag consumption and greenhouse gasses. Take that, hippies!
Except the new report that Gleason touts was funded by the plastic bag industry and sits behind a $5,400 paywall. The report was issued by the Freedonia Group and commissioned by the American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance — a name meant to obscure the true purpose of the ARPBA: to lobby against plastic bag bans and other laws aimed at reducing plastic pollution.