LETTER IN OPPOSITION TO A 4883 and S 4158

United for Action is a New York City-based group of volunteers who shape public policy
decisions by organizing and mobilizing groups of like-minded citizens. We oppose continued
reliance on fossil fuels to power our lives, including coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear energy.
We advocate instead for the implementation of renewable energy, as well as conservation and
energy efficiency.

In keeping with our mission to help reduce the use of fossil fuels, to protect health and the
environment, and help prevent catastrophic climate change, we strongly support the City
Councils legislation to impose a 5-cent fee on paper and plastic carryout bags in order to
encourage consumers to bring their own bags when they shop. Plastic bags are made from
fossil fuels, and we need to keep these fuels in the ground to prevent the worst effects of
climate change. Especially now, with all of President Trumps rollback of initiatives to deal
with the existential threat of climate change, cities and states need to take the lead in
protecting the environment and reducing harmful emissions.

We strongly oppose any efforts of Albany politicians to preempt the citys implementation of
the bag bill. There are many matters of importance that Albany needs to work on. State
politicians must respect NYCs citizens and democratically-enacted laws and instead work on
much-needed legislation that would truly help low-income citizens such as housing and
education as well as other issues.

Any delay is the equivalent of a preemption and is not acceptable.

To quote from Pope Francis excellent encyclical on the environment:

The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.
. These problems are closely linked to a throwaway culture which affects the excluded just
as it quickly reduces things to rubbish The climate is a common good, belonging to all and
meant for all. Humanity is called to recognise the need for changes of lifestyle, production
and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which
produce or aggravate it.

New York Citys bag bill addresses the environmental crisis in a meaningful way. The city uses
10 billion plastic bags a year. This produces thousands of tons of waste that goes to landfills.
It takes thousands of truck trips to carry the waste. As one can see firsthand every day, plastic
bags litter our trees and streets. Bags that go down the sewers get into waterways. The
plastic is eaten by marine life and gets into the food supply. There are islands of plastic
garbage floating in the seas.
Hundreds of other cities and municipalities around the world have enacted similar carryout
bag legislation with great success and citizen support. We need look no further than our own
metrocards to know that the bill will be effective. Before there was a $1 fee for a metrocard,
these plastic cards littered the subway floors. Since the fee was adopted, the strewn
metrocards have practically disappeared. We also have the success of the bill to reduce bottle
waste, which was met initially with resistance.

Some politicians are claiming that the fee is a tax. This is a spectacular example of an
alternative fact. The government does not collect any part of the fees. It is not a tax. No one
has to pay 5 cents if they bring their own bag.

Positing that the bag fee hurts the poor is disingenuous. There are exemptions for people on
food assistance, and there are many ways that consumers can get reusable bags. The bill will
actually help low-income communities, since they bear the brunt of the adverse health effects
from the emissions of thousands of truck trips going through their neighborhoods to truck
bag waste to landfills.

Leaders should put people and the planet above corporate profits and special interests. We
urge the State Assembly to respect democracy. Do not preempt a bill which will immediately
benefit our city, state, and above all, future generations.

Any delay is the equivalent of a preemption and is not acceptable.

Sincerely,

The Board of United for Action

Ling Tsou, founder

Edie Kantrowitz
Sharon Goldstein
Linda Croson
Beth Kelley