If you read our last post, you will know that we, Caoilin Krathaus and Lila Mankad went to the state capitol to lobby against Senate Bill 103, which would prohibit local government from banning bags.
Texas Campaign for the Environment invited us to a press conference at the Capitol and invited us to a committee hearing, where we could testify for House Bill 3482, which would allow local government to have bag ordinances. So yet again, we piled in a van at 5 a.m., on April 25, and began the journey to Austin. In the car, we practiced and practiced and practiced what we were going to say for the press conference. Finally, we arrived. We strode through the magnificent doors, through the rotunda, and walked into the little room where the press conference was going to be held. It had a large wooden podium, where we would be reading our speeches, a handful of chairs and a empty place in the back where cameramen stood.
Before we knew it, the press conference started. First, Robin, the head of TCE gave her speech, then introduced us. We talked about reasons for local control on bag bans. Every city has a different reason for a ban, so the cities should be able to decide for themselves if they want a bag ban. For Houston, the reason is that plastic bags clog our gutters, which increases flooding, hurt our wildlife, hang in the trees, and overall makes our Houston uglier. The reason in Kermit, Texas is that cows consume the bags, leading them to a slow and painful death. We spoke of how when plastic bags float down the bayou, they enter the Gulf of Mexico, where sea turtles ingest them, thinking they are jellyfish. We were joined a giant cow, goat, turtle, and plant. The cow also spoke.
In the afternoon, we testified in front of a committee. We spoke again, this time in front of state representatives.
You can read more and watch the cow testimony here:
