The House yesterday voted down Senate Bill 54, the plastic ban ban.
Representative Kelly Sullivan (D-13/Sioux Falls) rose to point out that SB 54 is a solution “in search of a problem that doesn’t exist.” She cited a PBS NewsHour report on pollution from plastic bags, noting that even plastics marketed as biodegradable don’t really biodegrade that well. Advocating the local control to which her Republican colleagues appear to support only when the locals do what Republicans tell them to, she said we shouldn’t prevent local governments from taking action to reduce litter. And she said that local plastic bans elsewhere have not stifled innovation, one of the strange claims made by the pro-business, pro-litter proponents of SB 54.
Representative Tim Reed (R-7/Brookings) said he thinks local plastic bans are bad for business, but he says cities should be free to make their own decisions and let the economic development chips fall where they may. He refuted the clever ploy proponents made about plastic bans hurting disabled folks who need straws by noting that local governments look at disability laws first when considering regulations like these.
Representative Tom Brunner (R-29/Nisland) said he likes SB 54 more every time he looks at it. He said real local control is letting consumers make individual decisions. He said SB 54 is good for business and said small towns don’t have grocery stores any more because “people get in the way and they can’t do things that are profitable to them.”
Representative Steven McCleerey (D-1/Sisseton) said his tribal community is manufacturing plastic bags made with 10% to 15% hemp. He nonetheless said he’d vote against the ban ban.
Representative Chris Johnson (R-32/Rapid City) quoted Ayn Rand—”The smallest minority on Earth is the individual”—and thus concluded that taking away local control really is granting local control. (Ayn Rand ignores, of course, the possibility, that individuals live in community and choose every day to take collective action, and SB 54 takes away the ability of a community to control its local affairs.)
Representative Ryan Cwach (D-18/Yankton) responded to Rep. Johnson’s Randy principles by encouraging lawmakers to “think not only about just the principles of local control but think about the policy behind this and where communities are going to be in 10–20 years.” Rep. Cwach said a plastic ban ban ties the hands of local officials who are trying to regulate what goes into their increasingly scarce landfill space.
Representative Scyller Borglum (R-32/Rapid City) said local control applies to political subdivisions and not individuals “because we’d end up in anarchy if all of us truly went our own way.” She also talked about octopi pulling their arms off and said she sees no crisis requiring this bill.
Rep. Reed took the floor again to piggyback on Rep. Cwach’s point, noting from his experience as mayor of Brookings that being able to regulate what’s going into the trash can save costs and preventing local governments from restricting plastic could increase taxes.
SB 54 went down on a 30–33 vote. Rep. Post said he’ll seek a reconsideration of the plastic ban ban next week.
See the debate starting at about 26:10 in SDPB’s video of Thursday’s House action:
Whales are washing up dead on beaches with tummies full of plastic. The prudent thing for stoopid effing wingnuts would be to mandate whales carry every calf to term and give birth and get preggers again, immediately. Moar whales can ingest moar plastics and the problem of whales will go away before you know it.
Do they make fertility drugs for whales so they, too, can have octuplets?
So the SDGOP wants to take away local control- CAFOs, protests and other bills. But the SDGOP wants every individual to do whatever pleases them as the epitome of local control. I think those boys are severely confused.