PLASTIC BAG BAN: one last chance

22 December, 2011
Dear Forum:

There is still one last chance for you to help prevent the plastic bag ban from becoming law :
the Mayor's veto.

If Mayor Billy Kenoi vetoes the bill, (as Mayor Harry Kim did before, from his hospital bed, through his acting representative),
then the progressive gang of five (Blas, Ford, Hoffman, Pilago and Smart) will not have the 6 votes needed to over-ride him.
This bill would NEVER survive a referendum vote by all the people, but it is being crammed down our throats anyway.

If the Mayor signs this in to law, and you did NOT do anything to try and stop it, you will forever know it happened in part because YOU  allowed it to.
See below our letter and response from him.

Please contact the Mayor, call, or write, or fax, or email, and ask him not to play the Grinch at Christmas giving us this nasty lump of coal as a present.
We deserve better.

Thanx !
aloha

Mayor’s Office
East Hawai‘i: 25 Aupuni Street, Suite 2603, Hilo, HI 96720
(808) 961-8211 | Fax: (808) 961-6553 | TDD: (808) 961-8521
West Hawai‘i: 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Bldg C, Kailua-Kona, HI 96740
(808) 323-4444 | Fax: (808) 323-4440 | TDD: (808) 327-6003
Email: cohmayor@co.hawaii.hi.us

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:     RE: Testimony regarding plastic bag ban
Date:     Thu, 22 Dec 2011 12:22:52 -1000
From:     cohmayor@co.hawaii.hi.us
To:     forumhawaii@gmail.com

Aloha Walter and Dr. Ed,

Mahalo for your email and I appreciate your perspectives about the
proposed plastic bag ban. We will definitely consider your thoughts before
we make a decision on this bill.

Mele Kalikimaka

Billy

From: Conservative Forum Hawaii [mailto:forumhawaii@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 7:04 PM
To: cohmayor@co.hawaii.hi.us
Subject: Testimony regarding plastic bag ban



conforhawaii.com

Dear Mr. Mayor:

Banning plastic bags is a terrible idea. It will raise everyone’s cost of living, make our lives just a little bit more difficult, and will
accomplish none of the ban’s stated goals.

Your help is greatly needed.

Paper bags cost more than plastic ones, which is why shopping will be just a little more expensive.
Plastic bags have way more utility and convenience than paper bags and reusable shopping bags,
so everyone’s life will get  just a little more inconvenient.

Especially right now, with our economy in the tank and folks really struggling,
we expect our politicians to make our lives less expensive and easier, not cost more and be more difficult.

Our position as conservatives is that this bag ban law is another unwarranted micro-management of our lives that should not be the purview
of our elected officials.

We also feel all  the arguments by the progressive activists pushing this are all wrong, and the net effect would actually be harmful.

    * We feel that litter is a behavioral problem, not an object problem.
For example, we cannot reduce car accidents by banning just Toyotas.

    * Plastic bags will be replaced by paper, which is less environmentally kind than plastic, takes even more landfill room, and
actually introduces more carbon into the air than plastic bag production and use.

    * Plastic bags do NOT contribute any significant content to the vast mass of sea-borne plastic debris, which is nearly all small
particulates of other origin.

    * NO scientific studies show plastic bags are a significant harm to wildlife. None.  Only a very few, rare, isolated and over-hyped photos
contradict this, not any real science.

    * Plastic bags will be replaced by paper, or re-usable bags, which are much less useful for the full spectrum that bags are currently used
for (transparent, cheap, light, and water-proof)

    * Paper bags will be more expensive than plastic, costs that the poorest among us can afford the least

    * These sorts of details of daily life are for individuals to decide, NOT the nanny-state government.

Personal liberty is again lessened by this ban. Bad idea.

Warmest aloha

    Walter Moe, President   
    Edward Gutteling M.D., V.P.