By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
The City of Bowling Green may consider enacting a plastic shopping bag fee before the state takes away the city’s right to adopt such a fee.
Joe DeMare, co-chair of the Wood County Green Party, approached City Council Monday evening, urging the body to act quickly to impose a fee on items such as styrofoam containers and plastic bags.
The Ohio House recently passed a bill, that is now under consideration in the Senate, that would prohibit municipalities from imposing a fee on such items, DeMare said.
“Around the country, small fees of a few cents per bag have been effective both at raising revenue and reducing the amount of plastic pollution,” DeMare said. “Studies have shown that being charged as little as a nickel per bag is enough to remind people to bring their own, reusable bags to the store.”
But the state legislation could prevent that from happening, he said.
So DeMare suggested that Bowling Green council members enact a fee before the state acts to prohibit them.
According to DeMare, this bill is the latest in a series of anti-environmental bills being passed by the state legislature. Among them is an “unreasonable setback law” which outlawed many wind farms in Ohio, he said.
The setback law would not have allowed Bowling Green’s wind turbines, which are currently producing electricity at half the market rate, DeMare said.
“Bowling Green showed great foresight when it installed those turbines,” he said. “We are asking the council to show foresight again.”
DeMare suggested the city establish a plastic bag fee quickly, before the state law goes into effect.
“We might be able to argue in court that it could be grandfathered in, since it was in place before the law went into effect, just as we have not been forced to take down our turbines,” he said.
“At the very least, it could give our community standing in a court challenge against a law which violates the principle of home rule, hurts the environment and blocks us from a potential source of revenue,” DeMare said.
Council member Bruce Jeffers said some groceries are planning to stop using plastic bags in a few years.
“I understand one of the local retailers is going to be phasing out plastic bags,” Jeffers said.
But that wasn’t soon enough for council member John Zanfardino, who met with DeMare after the meeting to discuss the issue.
“My hope is to introduce something at the next meeting,” Zanfardino said.
Zanfardino’s concerns were two-fold – one was the state’s disregard for the environment and the other was the erosion of local government.
Mayor Dick Edwards also expressed those concerns. Bowling Green has “embraced sustainability,” with using power from wind turbines, hydro-electric and its solar field.
“I hate to think, quite frankly, without some of these initiatives where we would be,” Edwards said.
The mayor also expressed dismay over the continuing erosion by the state of municipalities’ local authority.
“It is frustrating in that regard,” Edwards said.
Council member Sandy Rowland echoed those concerns.
“They continue to take away local authority,” she said of the state.
Rowland asked about city council sending a message to state legislators, similar to the letters sent by the mayor.
“I know the mayor has been quite proactive,” Council President Mike Aspacher said. He suggested that council members also send letters to state legislators trying to persuade them to protect the ability of cities to self-rule.
