Climate change policies continue to maximize inconvenience for people while doing nothing to actually save the planet. In fact, they may be making things worse.
In May 2022, New Jersey made a big show of banning single-use plastics, including plastic grocery bags, plastic straws, and foam takeout containers. “Plastic bags are one of the most problematic forms of garbage, leading to millions of discarded bags that stream annually into our landfills, rivers, and oceans,” Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) said, touting that the ban would “help mitigate climate change.”
Never mind that the U.S. is responsible for less than 1% of global mismanaged plastic waste and that China, which Democrats continue to treat with kid gloves on climate change, is responsible for over 20%. New Jersey thought it was going to save the planet one banned straw or grocery bag at a time.
Instead, New Jersey residents have used three times the amount of plastic since the law was passed. Those alternative grocery bags that New Jersey is forcing people to use to protect the environment from those evil plastic bags? They are typically made of nonwoven polypropylene, and the production of those bags has led to a 500% increase in greenhouse gas emissions compared to production in 2015. They need to be used 7,100 times to have a positive impact on the environment.
So New Jersey is absolutely saving the environment, so long as you use those alternate bags once a week for the next 136 years.
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This is how it always seems to go. California is forcing drivers into electric vehicles whose charging stations are powered by “dirty” energy and is bolstering its energy grid with fossil fuels to keep it from crashing. Chicago is going to force residents into using electric instead of natural gas in their buildings, an inferior “choice” that is less reliable and that they will be forced to pay for out of pocket. All the while, China gets a pass on its pollution, carbon emissions, and human rights abuses while Democrats try to play nice to get nonbinding promises from a country that clearly does not care to fulfill them.
Liberal climate change policy ranges from economic policy that has nothing to do with the environment (enter the Green New Deal) to do-nothing policies that don’t save the planet but make Democrats feel good about themselves. New Jersey’s plastic ban was the latter, and it managed to make things worse in the process.