Banning Grocery Bags, Hurricane Gustav and Pelosi on Oil Drilling
Lawmakers in Hawaii join others in San Francisco and Los Angeles in voting to ban plastic grocery bags.
Hurricane Gustav blasts past Jamaica on its way to the U.S. coast.
Protesters upset over high oil and gas prices interrupt a Nancy Pelosi press conference with chants of “Drill here! Drill now!”
1. ENVIRONMENT
Lawmakers in Hawaii join others in San Francisco and Los Angeles in voting to ban plastic grocery bags.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Risk & Environmental Policy Angela Logomasini on the advantages of plastic over paper:
“Plastics are lightweight, durable, reusable, and easier to carry. For those ‘environmentally’ conscious consumers who walk to the grocery, the durability plastic makes even more sense as plastics don’t fall apart easily – not even in the rain! Plastic is also much less likely to carry cockroaches into your home, which can be a problem with paper bags. Common to supermarkets, cockroaches feed on the glue in paper bags and easily can hide in the crevices of paper bag.”
2. WEATHER
Hurricane Gustav blasts past Jamaica on its way to the U.S. coast.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Eli Lehrer on the state of hurricane insurance in Florida:
“The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund and Florida Citizens Property Insurance Corp. already spread the costs too widely. If a major storm hits the state, just about everyone (even those who don’t own homes) will pay enormous special taxes (called assessments) to pay off insurance claims. Insurance serves its function best when risk factors, not politics, determine rates. The government can assist by doing things like improving building standards, helping people upgrade their homes and even providing direct assistance to people of modest means. But increased insurance regulation is the last thing Florida needs.”
3. ENERGY
Protesters upset over high oil and gas prices interrupt a Nancy Pelosi press conference with chants of “Drill here! Drill now!”
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Fellow Steven Milloy on the economics of gas prices:
“Getting back to Pelosi’s derogatory ‘2-cents-in-10-years-crowd’ comment, it seems as if it was debunked before she uttered it. Bush’s revocation of the executive order — which without similar congressional action amounts to little more than a political statement in favor of increasing the oil supply — has possibly already reduced the price of gasoline by 38 cents in 30 days. The mere prospect that the U.S. might get serious about increasing the supply of oil has sent speculators scurrying for cover. Imagine what would happen if we actually explored, drilled and produced some of that offshore oil — which, by the way, could be way more than 18 billion barrels. The U.S. Minerals Management Service estimated in 2006 that the quantity of undiscovered technically recoverable oil in the outer continental shelf is between 66.6 to 115.3 billion barrels of oil.”
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