The plastic bag police scored a victory in Seattle this week. The liberal enclave imposed a ban on plastic bags and a 5-cent tax on paper bags, joining other major cities in the latest nanny-state crackdown sweeping the nation. Seattle’s ban applies to all grocery, retail and convenience stores. It exempts farmers’ markets, however. The ordinance takes effect in July 2012. Seattle’s action comes three years after the City Council tried to impose a 20-cent tax on all bags. That idea was shot down by voters in a referendum. It’s …
We continue to highlight particular industries hit hard by the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill. The next three, although technically classified as two categories, are also energy-intensive subsets of the manufacturing sector. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) classifies the plastics and rubbers products industries as a manufacturing “subsector [that] make[s] goods by processing plastics materials and raw rubber. The core technology employed by establishments in this subsector is that of plastics or rubber product production. Plastics and rubber are combined in the same subsector because plastics are increasingly …
