California is known for its frequent experiments with bad economic policies, but it has seemingly avoided enacting the first statewide ban on plastic grocery bags, at least for now.
Such bans are by no means limited to California. In fact, Santa Fe and Silver City, New Mexico have adopted bans. In an effort to educate New Mexico policymakers and average citizens on the potential drawbacks of these restrictive policies, the Rio Grande Foundation is hosting a series of free public forums on the issue of plastic bag bans on September 15 in Albuquerque and on September 16 in Las Cruces.
What I don’t like is that in some jurisdictions stores will charge people for plastic bags, but won’t charge people for parking.
In some areas, government regulates how many parking places must be available through zoning laws. I’d agree with you that government shouldn’t dictate this, but I don’t care if businesses want to give their customers free parking, free bags, neither, or both.