From my commentary at the FlashReport....

The plastic bag tax keeps rolling along in the legislature. Meredith Turney first noted it for us in March. In April Jon Fleischman offered a commentary on the subject, hi-liting the little matter of "greenwashing," in which both consumers and policy-makers are hoodwinked into supposedly eco-friendly goals to the benefit and profit of the growing green industry.

Since then, Lloyd Levine's AB 2058 has passed the Assembly, 44-33, and found its way to Senate Appropriations for a slated hearing this week. In essence, the bill would require proof that a grocery store is recycling a whopping 70 percent of all its plastic carry out bags, or require a charge to the customer of at least 25 cents per bag. The plastic bag police will be the California Integrated Waste Management Board.

A website has been set up in opposition to the bill, with radio ads running in various parts of the state.

The supporters of the bag tax are a bit rabid, not surprisingly. Their "I have seen the face of evil and it's the plastic bag industry" mentality would be funny if it weren't so scary. Ok, maybe it's funny too.

All this going on, and it's apparent very few are considering how the free market could address the terrible proliferation of plastic bags. The "fee market" is always a simpler solution to a statist.

A few years ago after juice shops became all the craze, I made a habit of grabbing a Jamba Juice power smoothy on a regular basis, at least before I realized the sheer number of carbs that went into a cup (no trans fat, thankfully, or the government would force them to shut down).

At any rate, many of the most well-known juice establishments offer a cool little incentive. Purchase your strawberry zinger in a throw-away Styrofoam cup, or buy a reusable, colorful plastic mug. By choice, of all things. Yes, of course the mug is a few dollars, but every time you bring it back you save 25 cents or so on your next purchase. In my case, within two months my ROI was complete and I was saving a few bucks, all while helping the environment. Heck, even if someone cared nothing for the environment, they could still save money. Incentives by choice, instead of a socialized program. The free market at its best.

In the case of the grocery stores, more and more are offering sturdy canvas totes as an alternative to paper and plastic bags. Again, there is a cost, but few - if any - economic incentives. In effect, you pay the price of the bag so you can carry it around and advertise the store's name and logo. The Hollister of the grocery industry.

Perhaps a well-meaning, eco-friendly and PR savvy grocery chain should lead the way on economic-based solutions to the plastic bag dilemma. Buy our canvas bags, advertise our brand, and save a few cents on future grocery bills every time you re-use the bag. The stores could use the program in a marketing campaign if they wished, both to advertise customer cost savings and their leadership and value as the "green" grocer.

In case anyone thinks there isn't a long term incentive for grocers to try this route, as such a program would eventually be a money loser, they would be dead wrong. Not only do stores have to purchase plastic and paper bags themselves (what, you thought they were free?), but state mandates are already in place that grocers must provide bag recycling. In fact, they are even mandated to have a compliance program in place, including the maintenance of records "describing the collection, transport, and recycling of plastic carryout bags collected by the store."

That's right, a group of Integrated Waste Management Nannies are being paid to cull through reports to ensure Vons and Albertsons record the number of plastic bags they recycle, if you can believe it. Yes, I'm sure you can.

By the way, that recycling bill was passed only last year, not even enough time to consider any impacts before piling a tax onto the mandate.

As is typically the case with socialized government programs, you push over here and something pops out somewhere else. Many use plastic grocery bags to line the trash receptacles inside their homes, before filling them up, taking them to the outside trash can, then to the curb, on their eventual way to the landfill. If I'm forced to pay for the grocery bags, I'll buy the packaged plastic trash bags instead. A much better scenario, there. I'll use them to line the trash receptacles inside my home, before filling them up, taking them to the outside trash can, then to the curb, on their eventual way to the landfill.

Lest we forget, the reason we have plastic grocery bags in the first place is because environmentalists were intent on scrapping paper bags, to save trees. Now, the alarmists say that plastic is worse. This year's model. Oh, very little mention that it uses more energy, produces more emissions, and costs more to produce paper bags. Greenwashing.

If AB 2058 reaches the Governor's desk, do we need to once again remind him of the economist he admires the most, Milton Friedman?

The bag tax is just one more example of good intentions, mandated through bad public policy, yet no interest whatsoever in free market solutions.