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Re: [greenyes] Hawaii Bottle Bill Fight


GreenYes Colleagues,

The last ditch effort to stall the bottle bill is a transparent attempt to
thwart the will of the people and the Legislature. Implementing regulations are
long overdue.

What we are seeing is a quiet end-run by the executive, which is being
manipulated by the beverage industry as an excuse to delay implementation. No state
given more time to implement a bottle bill, as far as I know.

Hawaii's bottle bill is the first beverage deposit system breakthrough since
1986. Local government and state legislators were the driving force, with a
supportive executive branch.

Environmental and community groups helped get the bill through the conference
committee in the second year of the Legislature. The beverage and grocery
industry were caught in a unique set of circumstances, having promised many
years earlier to set up an effective voluntary system and failing to follow
through.

Gov. Lingle initially promised repeal of the legislation, but quit when it
became clear that the law enjoys broad bipartisan support in the Legislature and
strong public backing.

Perhaps supporters of the bottle bill in the 10 states with deposit programs
should send letters of support to Rep. Hermina Morita, the author of the
bottle bill, addressing the unnecessarily slow pace of action by the executive
branch in developing implementing regulation.



Lance King

Chairman

Community Solutions

Tel: 703/536-7282

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