Free Republic

The "better bottle bill," filed by Rep. Marjorie Decker and Sen. Cindy Creem, would increase the bottle deposit from its current five cents to 10 cents and add more types of beverage containers to the program, putting a deposit on water bottles, vitamin drinks, nips and bottles for other drinks that weren't contemplated when the initial law was adopted in the early 1980s. Both House and Senate versions of the bill were referred to the Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy Committee. The panel endorsed Creem's bill last month and advanced it to the Senate Ways and Means Committee, while it is...

Pretty much any subject, stupid humor is fine, general stupidity not so much, and please no snarking, that's directed at you snarky SOBs. Someone used to do a thread like this every year, but, alas, he got banned. The good news (for me, anyway) is I just noticed that a really big butthole (not the same FReeper) got banned for NeverTrumping back in 2016, and I hadn't missed the ******* at all. That got me thinking, because the predictions thread guy also got booted for NeverTrumpism, if memory serves (not sure, I think I'd already been kicked out for something...

While Massachusetts is a national leader in creating green energy sources, area environmentalists say more work is needed to reverse the potentially devastating effects climate change could have on the planet... "The signs indicate that it’s real," said Jack Clarke, director of public policy and government relations at Mass Audubon. Environmentalists say the way to slow climate change is by reducing greenhouse gases by 40 to 70 percent by 2050 through development of green, or renewable, energy sources and conservation. "The lack of urgency is pretty disturbing," he said. "By and large the environment comes in last of any evaluation...

Calling it “too late” for a legislative solution, proponents of expanding the state’s 5-cent bottle deposit law to more types of beverage containers said they are taking their decade-long fight to the people, filing a ballot petition with the attorney general Wednesday afternoon. Referencing unsuccessful attempts to push the proposal through the Legislature, Janet Domenitz, executive director of MassPIRG, said people who favor adding the deposit to sports drinks, water and other juice drinks have been patient for long enough. “It is time for the citizens’ voices to be heard,” she said standing in front of the state office tower...

The Senate’s unexpected decision to include an expansion of the state’s bottle redemption law in a bill designed to promote job creation and economic development has done little to budge the House from its position that the initiative is a tax. And the House doesn’t want to raise taxes this year. “We view it as a tax in the House and the speaker and the House have been clear with their opposition to increases in taxes,” Rep. Joseph Wagner, who was appointed on Tuesday as his branch’s lead negotiator on the economic development bill, told the News Service early Tuesday...

Massachusetts lawmakers are considering updates to the state's bottle bill that would expand deposit fees to non-carbonated beverages and redirect unclaimed deposits to help fund local recycling programs. Over a dozen bills proposing changes to the state's 30-year-old container deposit system are set to be heard before a legislative committee Wednesday, including one that would place deposit fees on nearly all beverages, including water, iced tea, juice, and sports drinks. But the expansion would increase the cost to consumers and businesses, say opponents of the bill. "This is a serious tax on consumers at the wrong time," said Christopher Flynn,...