California never misses an opportunity to push middle-income and poor families closer to poverty. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s SB 54 — the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act — is one more costly example.
It is being marketed as an environmental milestone, but in practice, it is a stealth tax on every American, especially those least able to absorb higher costs. Thankfully, 17 states are saying no to having this piece of California craziness imposed on them and are fighting back in federal court.
SB 54 is California’s attempt to decide which kinds of plastics are acceptable and which are not for the nation. Specifically, it forces producers of packaging and single-use plastics to redesign products, meet strict recyclability mandates and pay billions of dollars into a California-controlled environmental “superfund.”California politicians claim corporations will absorb these costs. However, corporations do not absorb costs; consumers do. Because California is the nation’s largest market, companies cannot realistically create one packaging system for California and another for the rest of the country. They will end up spreading the costs nationwide.
This means that families in states that never asked for this expensive green nonsense must deal with it anyway.
In normal U.S. market conditions, recycled plastics — the materials California is forcing producers to use — are typically 10% to 20% more expensive than virgin plastics. Food-grade recycled plastics can cost hundreds of dollars more per metric ton. Recycled plastics are also weaker, meaning that manufacturers must use more material to achieve the same durability.
These costs show up on store shelves. A 10% to 20% increase in packaging costs may sound trivial to policymakers in Sacramento, but for a single mother in Mississippi or a retiree in Ohio, the effect compounds across every item in the cart. SB 54 is a textbook regressive tax, one that takes a larger share from those with the least.
Not only is this a bad policy, but it is being forced on other states that never asked for it. This is the central argument behind the lawsuit filed by 17 state attorneys general.
California voters may support aggressive environmental mandates. Some may even be willing to absorb higher prices. Still, voters in other states did not choose this policy, yet they are forced to pay for it because national producers cannot isolate California’s costs.
“Once again, California is trying to enact a policy that negatively impacts the rest of the country,” said Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers. Nebraska is one of the 17 states bringing the case against the California law.
This is not cooperative federalism. It is regulatory imperialism.
If California succeeds here, nothing stops it from imposing similar nationwide costs in energy, agriculture, transportation, consumer electronics, you name it. SB 54 is not just a plastics law. It is a blueprint for how one state can impose its preferences on the entire country.
The 17 attorneys general are right to fight it. Their lawsuit is not about denying environmental protection. It is about protecting consumers, restoring constitutional limits and preventing California from taxing the entire nation through regulatory force.
This article originally appeared at The Washington Times
Stop selling plastics into California. It won’t take long.
The people that run CA wouldn’t care. The rest have no voice.
Cartels never last. All it takes is one deserter smelling all that money left on the table.
Gruesome Newsom could take a lead by going into every hospital, every clinic, every doctor’s surgery and removing the plastics. Syringes etc etc
He can replace that with recyclable glass. Why doesn’t he?
Hey . . . how about that plastic spray (varnish?) he uses to hold his hair perfectly in place during all of his public appearances and news conferences?
One of the Canadian government’s brilliant ideas was to ban single use plastic bags at store check-outs. I used to get plastic bags at the grocery store that could actually carry my groceries, that had handles (simple loops) for carrying, and that I would then re-use as trash bags. Now I have to buy multi-use bags for my groceries and (single-use!) bags for trash. The grocery bags use far more plastic (you can buy paper bags, too), get dirty over time, and accumulate because I forget them in the car or decide while shopping that I need more items than I came in for—meaning I need a bag when I didn’t think I would. Meanwhile, almost everything in the store is packaged in plastic.
When they were planning to get rid of single use plastic shopping bags in the UK I actually weighed the plastic packaging in my typical grocery purchase. Apart from taking longer than I’d assumed because I had to wait till some containers were empty, the packaging weighed a bit more than the bags.
I suppose if you think there’s a problem with plastic bags in the UK then the less than 50% reduction is a good thing. On the other hand, we in the UK are pretty good about disposing of plastic responsibly. (I know our self-loathing is such that we don’t believe that, but five minutes walking along any rural road in Spain or Italy will tell you we are paragons compared.)
We are setting a good example. But half the world doesn’t give a stuff about our virtue.
(Looking at that map, and knowing what I know about Spain, my mind boggles at what the red regions must be like!)
I’ve never actually measured weights (good science on your part!), but I would estimate that the plastic bags weighed much less than 10 percent of the total plastic in a typical order. Grocery and drug store shelves in Canada are filled with plastic (milk jugs, shampoo bottles, liquid laundry detergent bottles, drink bottles, pre-packaged salads, and innumerable other items). Canadians in general are pretty conscientious about disposing of garbage properly, so garbage bags were almost never a noticeable feature of the landscape where I’ve lived.
Funny. My trash removal service will not take my trash unless it is bagged and tied shut, aka plastic single use plastic.
Ditto. They’ll take anything-including the dead, I guess-as long as it is bagged.
Get a sturdy cardboard box. Make handles. Decorate and strengthen with colorful duct tape. Use over and over. Much better for shopping trips than bags. States often mandate a 10¢ fee for bags and some stores give a 10¢ discount if you source your own carrier.
Interesting that during COVID reusable bags were banned in many states in the US. Ah, but the rules change. Whatever inconveniences the little people the most becomes law.
I could do that, and I do use the bags made of recycled plastic (when I remember them!). But my main point was that the savings in plastic are miniscule. In addition to grocery and drug store items, there are plastics in hospitals, doctor and dentist offices, vehicles (including EVs), airplanes, computers, and innumerable other products. Regarding the bags alone, I now have to buy trash bags that I used to get from the grocery stores for nothing.
I use PETE totes bags made from soda pop bottles. The blue tote bag from Walmart says: I used to be a pop bottle.
The only plastics that can be recycled is clear plastic. Colored plastic containers such as a yellow French’s mustard bottle can’t be recycled. All of this type of plastic should be used as fuel for an electrical power plant. I live in Burnaby, B.C. which has a regional waste-to-energy incinerator that burns 250,000 tons of trash per year.
Recycled plastic from food and beverage containers is never used for new foods and beverages containers because traces of aromas form it can not be removed.
I say: Burn Baby Burn!
According to the labels on the bags, they were not made from oil, but from starch.
I once bought a box of recyclable plastic bags for yard waste, grass or plant clippings, etc. More than half of the bags rotted before use.
Try putting them out at the curb on recycling day during a major rain storm and see what happens. When the bottom falls out, the crew leaves the detritus and the bag and you now have to clean up and re-bag, killing another tree.
Some plastic bags are primarily made from corn-based materials, such as polylactic acid (PLA), as well as starch. Air, humidity, and light allows them to fall apart. That’s the intent. I don’t know about “rotting”.
“Rotting” is just a term for disintegrate and fall apart-dialect, slang or just imprecise language-but as you said, the intent is for them to fall apart, which is a good thing if it can make it to the landfill. I know, pedantic, but it’s a slow rainy day here…
“Because California is the nation’s largest market, companies cannot realistically create one packaging system for California and another for the rest of the country. They will end up spreading the costs nationwide.”
Historical case in point. Remember when CA mandated a special gasoline blend? How many of us now are obligated to consume that given no other choice? This is the same.
The big state forcing its will onto small states?
Where have I heard this before?
It is to the USA what the USA is to the rest of the world.
Заткни свою пащу
Ignoring the “Interstate Commerce Clause” of the constitution is a California tradition. While the 17 states challenging this regulation have a strong case here’s what often happens. CA proposes a regulation that will result in a de facto national regulation due to their market size. When challenged several other liberal states will propose similar but somewhat different regulations. Manufacturers will then realize they are faced with differing regulations in several states which will be a compliance nightmare. Soon the industry begins lobbying congress to impose a preemptive national regulation which will at least preserve competitive parity. So the consumer’s costs go up and all the liberal whackos are happy.
Sadly, during this process not a single legitimate cost benefit study is done by any of the regulators involved. If the industry does one it will be assumed to be biased and ignored. This is why we have hundreds or maybe thousands of regulation that drive up prices but result in no measurable benefit.
CARB0B is produced in California only. Even gasoline produced in CA but exported to Nevada and Arizona are a relaxed specification.
Those producing gasoline for California have to follow the recipe. Many times the refinery finds it less costly to just make the California blend for everyone.
Same with auto emission standards.
The effects of californication’s psychoses cover not just the US, but extend all around the world. Any company who wants to sell into californcation needs to produce things that comply with their idiocies and once they are set up for that it makes economic sense for them to only have one set of products.
Thus we get increased costs, and thus prices, everywhere.
“… billions of dollars into a California-controlled environmental “superfund.”
If such a thing is born, should not that money be put into a national fund directed by a rational person, say me? Why should it all go to slimy California?
Will go instead to Dem’s pockets…neither you nor I will see a cent, just a cost.
The US Constitution has specific clauses addressing the regulation of interstate commerce being under the power of Congress.
It will be interesting to see if this is declared Un-Constitutional.
It should be unconstitutional. The case of growing your own grain for animal feed without selling it is regulated by Congress. Indirect affects to interstate commerce can only be controlled by Congress.
There’s a fine line between what a State can do versus what the Feds can do and what neither can do.
This ain’t it.
I mean, if NY or California want to only have “Green” power feeding their grid, why don’t they cut off the power supplying their grids from outside their states’ boundaries?
States are one party by design, and I believe, voter fraud either by meddling with the process or flooding the voting pool with illegal aliens. UK has already lost the battle to maintain its’ historical identity to foreign influences. NYC is going down the same path with Communism (admitted) and will be the bellwether going forward in the USA. California has long had Marxist influences but never openly admitted it. Initially there will be workarounds to SB 54 if it passes (I don’t think it will) that don’t use plastic in CA but customer/user choice will determine the winner.
I first got to California in the early 70s. It was pretty conservative. The last real conservative governer was Wilson. When Jerry Brown got in he allowed the public employees to unionize. Thus the teachers unions, prison employees, state police and many others. The SEIU was always left wing. The employees of the unions were thus beholden. And they followed diktaks. The other democrats are committed to stupidity and follow along with these foolish and often very expensive ideas.
I would like to ask California Governor Newsom how much recycled plastic he is planning to require be used in his pet boondoggle, the California High Speed Rail (HSR) project.
The HSR has a current accounting expenditure of $13.8 billion for ZERO miles of newly-installed track for the actual high-speed system . . . primary track laying is scheduled to begin later in 2026.
However, the existing HSR system is commonly advertised to be 171 miles of largely pre-existing rail between the towns of Merced and Bakersfield. Not a popular travel route, to be sure.
Also, this: in a valiant attempt (hah!) to salvage the HSR project despite massive cost overruns—sold to CA voters in 2008 under state Proposition 1A in a total bond amount of $9.95 billion and with the stated objective of connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco, about 500 miles distance, in under three hours at rail speeds up to 220 mph—the HSR managers unilaterally decided to route the HSR through relatively small towns (such as Madera and Fresno) so as to use existing railway and to increase ridership, with this decision of course eliminating any chance of “high speed” over the full final route, whatever that might be.
Considering decreased speeds required to safely transit metropolitan areas and the extra stops with passenger exchanges, the average speed from LA to SF with this new routing is more likely to be around 70 mph, not that far above average travel speed by automobile or bus. “High speed”? . . . don’t make me laugh!
Yeah, I would like to ask Newsom that . . . but I already know the answer.
Gavin Newsom remains the likely Democratic Party nominee for president in 2028.
Liberal Democrats consider his record as governor of California as a near complete success. He has the Pelosi money machine behind him. He is a heart-throb among liberal white women voters. He is exceptionally glib in spouting his talking points. He has an actor’s sense of how to adapt his message and his presentation to a specific audience.
My prediction is that Newsom will make a deal for DSA support by choosing AOC as his VP running mate. He will adapt his own mannerisms and his own narrative style to appeal to independents, while AOC works with the DSA shock troops to deliver the large metropolitan areas in the blue and the purple states to the Newsom/AOC ticket.
And, if Gavin Newsom becomes president, he will do for all of America what he did for California.
Gavin Newsom remains the likely Democratic Party nominee for president in 2028.
I saw a poll yesterday that puts AOC at the top.
Tony_G: “I saw a poll yesterday that puts AOC at the top.”
Sparta Nova 4: “I saw a poll today that puts Harris at the top.”
The polls mean nothing. Inside the Democratic Party, deals are made behind the scenes to choose the candidates that party insiders believe will deliver a victory in November.
The primaries, the delegate selection processes, and the candidates themselves are manipulated in ways that will deliver the Chosen Ones at the party convention.
Unless some massive personal scandal takes Gavin Newsom out of the picture, the obvious insider choice for a party ticket is Gavin Newsom for president and AOC for vice president.
I get “tickets” to “free lunches, dinners”. All I have to do is listen to lecture about funding my retirement through them.
I always tear such tickets/invites up.
A promised “free lunch” isn’t worth what it would cost.
Are you suggesting, by chance, USA citizens prepare for a BOHICA event?
Sh*t happens. Preparing for a BOHICA event would appear to be a prudent course of action for 2028 and beyond.
“BOHICA”. Brings back fond memories (NOT that kind.).
Whenever one my old managers had a special computer-data related task for info he was told his bosses to supply, he’d call on me. “BOHICA!, I need the daily elevations for Hoover (our water supply reservoir) for the last 30 years.” Such request were the only time he called me that.
It was several months before I found out that “BOHICA” stood for “Bend Over. Here It Comes Again!”. 😎
It is important to remember that BOHICA events tend to run in cycles. For every BOHICA cycle that has started, progressed, and ended — another one is in the pipeline.
And then there is the ever-popular BOSLAP: bend over, squeal like a pig.
I saw a poll today that puts Harris at the top.
See my response to Tony_G.
Of Jerry Brown?
I remember when plastic bags were the solution to cutting down trees for wood pulp. It was all promoted and supported by the Sierra Club and environmentalists.
They also used to want to “Save the Whales”.
(And the birds and the bats and the flowers and the trees and a thing called ….)
Maybe the other states should impose a heavy tax that applies to companies following Californian laws rather than local ones?
Just incinerate it.