Bottled Water Ban Not Enough

      Following the radically liberal traditions of San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom banned municipal departments from purchasing bottled water, even for water coolers.

     But, that wasn’t good enough for the environmental extremist left or CNN. The June 25 “American Morning” broadcast highlighted the Greenpeace response to the rule, which goes into effect July 1.

     Samantha Rogers, a Greenpeace Energy Policy analyst, wasn’t satisfied because it wasn’t enough. “Well, Greenpeace whole-heartedly supports efforts to reduce plastic waste and the consumption of oil,” she explained. “We have to call into question the significance of this move however.”

     CNN didn’t include anyone from the bottled water industry to speak against the extreme ban. But fill-in anchor Rob Marciano was quick to recommend drinking “tap water” because “that’s one way everybody could save the environment.”

     NBC at least tried to balance its approach to the story. The June 24 “Nightly News” offered one opposing view of Newsom’s directive. One unidentified San Francisco city employee raised the possibility that the city’s older building may have plumbing that could present health hazards. “Whether or not there’s leaching of copper, other materials that might be in the pipes,” she said.

     Any move toward eliminating bottled water from San Francisco raises safety concerns.  The bay area faces a high risk of earthquake activity and has a highly vulnerable public works system that is responsible for delivering tap water to more than 700,000 residents.

     This was an issue not raised by either NBC or CNN’s coverage.

     Even with that need, Greenpeace’s Rogers complained that the measure wasn’t good enough.

     “It is encouraging to see Mayor Newsom address the issue of global warming in particular,” Rogers added. “However, there is a plan awaiting his signature that will be much more significant than this move to ban bottled water. This plan, called ‘Community Choice Energy’ will actually deliver over 50 percent of San Francisco’s energy from clean renewable resources like wind and solar power, which is clearly a much more broad sweeping solution than banning plastic bottles.”

     The “Community Choice Energy” plan is an ambitious proposal to be fully implemented by 2017 and is championed by global warming doomsayers. However, its own activists concede it will not save ratepayers money in the long run.

[CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misspelled San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's name. BMI regrets the error.]