WTOP Believes in the Plastic Bag Fairy

WTOP apparently thinks plastic bags are created for free by magic fairies and delivered fresh each morning to the steps of your local grocery store.

"It'll soon cost you more to go to the grocery store." That's how an anchor began a story this week on a proposal to put a fee on plastic bags in Maryland's Montgomery County.

Plastic bags cost retailers $4 billion a year, a cost they pass along to us in the form of higher prices. As DC's experience shows, a small plastic bag fee can dramatically increase reusable bag usage. That cuts overhead for the store, prices for consumers, and taxes for all of us as communities spend less money picking up plastic bag litter.

Learn more at TrashFreeMaryland.org and TrashFreeVirginia.org.

WTOP Earns Golden Ostrich Nomination

Last night as I was listening to WTOP radio, Shawn Anderson read a story about how polar bears are struggling with less ice and how the Pacific walruses is now considered threatened - without using the words "climate" or "global warming."

(Puts on Jon Gruden voice) Now, Shawn Anderson, you talk about THIS GUY, you talk about a guy who knows how to keep his head down. I mean, this guy knows if you point out scientific fact, people who find that politically inconvenient are just gonna get mad at ya! So why do it? YOU DON'T! I'm tellin' ya, you could put this guy in the middle of any controversy in any era - cigarettes causing cancer, CFCs destroying the ozone layer - and this guy's gonna give it his all to avoid giving you the whole story.

See the rest of the Golden Ostrich nominees, or if you see or hear a story that avoids or obfuscates climate science, email me your nomination.

One Holiday I'm Glad We're Not Celebrating

The Green Miles recently made headlines (OK, so it was page 48 of the Post Express) for suggesting that public opposition to the Clinton/McCain plan to temporarily eliminate the federal gas tax showed that maybe, just maybe, we'd reached a turning point on energy policy:

Americans are finally saying they don't want short-term cheap gas -- they want solutions that would take long-term pressure off energy prices, like more fuel efficient cars and American-made renewable energy.

But if there's anyone who can keep a good pander alive in the face of increasing public awareness, it's your ratings-seeking media. Last week on WTOP radio, an anchor teased an upcoming gas prices story by saying, "Still ahead, waiting for that bubble to burst so we can fill our gas tanks in a pain-free manner." If anyone out there thinks we'll wake up one day to magically find gas back to $1.09 a gallon, I strongly discourage you from holding your breath.

The great irony is that previous attempts to change our national energy policy (like 2005's Climate Stewardship Act) were rejected because opponents said they might -- get ready for it -- drive up gas prices. So now we have the worst of both worlds -- high gas prices and we're still as addicted to oil as ever. As Joseph Romm writes at Grist, analysts are now revising their previous caps on just how high prices might go:

While $12-15 a gallon gas is probably a long way away -- and still preventable -- it looks increasingly like we dawdled too long on alternatives to avoid $6-7.

What's the reason for the delay in alternatives? I think we all know why.

Cross-posted from Raising Kaine