Saturday, December 4, 2010

Sacramento AB 1998 Press Conference - videos

My trip up to Sacramento was a quick one, but chock full of great inspirational speeches and information. I will do two posts on the Nov. 29 press conference hosted by Green Cities California and organized by the Clean Seas Coalition and Seventh Generation Advisers.

Part 1 - speeches from policy makers and business owners in support of AB 1998


The creator and owner of Chico Bags, Andy Keller gave a speech on the economic benefit of green jobs in CA and how passing AB 1998 - the CA statewide ban on single use plastic bags - would ensure economic growth.

Things that I learned from Andy's articulate speech:
1. Chico Bags is 1 of 20 reusable bag companies in CA
2. CA is home to more reusable bag companies than any other state in the country

"Groups like the ACC (American Chemistry Council) are spending millions to stop this movement. I think they would be elates if we were all running around as bag monsters....Make no mistake, when they (the ACC) talk about jobs they are not talking about green jobs, they are talking about a handful of bag manufacturers in CA...What they are not telling us is that for most of them, single use carry out bags are just a small section of their product line. And that many of these plastic bag manufacturers already make reusable bags."

I have two more speeches to add to this post, but I will do so later. We got our Christmas Tree tonight so I am sure you understand if I sign off after many frustrating minutes uploading YouTube videos to "deck the halls" with my husband, two dogs and cat. More soon!!