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Judge rejects delay of NYPIRG's Bigger, Better Bottle Bill
By Ed Mierzwinski - 10/24/2009 NYPIRG's long and tough Bigger, Better Bottle Bill campaign to expand recycling in New York State to include the massive stream of plastic water bottles should finally achieve success on Halloween. From the AP via the New York Times:
A federal judge issued an order on Friday lifting an injunction on an expansion of the state’s bottle bill, meaning that nickel deposits will be imposed on bottled water starting Oct. 31. All containers of water under a gallon will have a 5-cent refundable deposit, as beer and soda containers have had for years.[...] Laura Haight, a senior environmental associate at the New York Public Interest Research Group, praised the ruling, by Judge Deborah A. Batts of United States District Court, saying the new deposits would result in more recycling and less litter.
This ruling reversed an earlier injunction by a different judge. Bottle and can deposit laws reduce waste and litter--it's unfortunate that only nine states have enacted them, due to the political power of the bottling and grocery industries to externalize the costs of their waste onto taxpayers. But maybe New York's bottle bill expansion will promote more returnable container deposit laws.
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Next bank fee under Congressional review: overdraft charges, aka the $39 latte!
By Ed Mierzwinski - 10/23/2009 While Congress has been considering the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, action on unfair overdraft fees has not slowed. Earlier this week, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) (his statement) and Senators and fellow committee members Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Jack Reed (D-RI) introduced overdraft fee reform legislation (statement from PIRG and others). Also, Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced a new version of their overdraft reforms. Story from syndicated columnist Kathy Kristof. My most recent testimony to Congress, earlier this year. Since banks are allowed by their regulators (no CFPA yet!) to manipulate both the timing that consumer deposits are made available and the order that checks and debits are withdrawn, and have the technology to decline debits at point of sale that would cause an overdraft but no longer choose to use it, consumer groups believe that overdraft practices need stricter regulation. Among our key reforms: no one should be enrolled in so-called overdraft protection automatically, they should have to affirmatively say yes, or opt-in. Even the Federal Reserve has proposed a regulation to address the problem, but it does not go as far as either bill. Oh, the latte: $4 for the latte, plus a $35 average overdraft "protection" fee.
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HuffPo: Re Sen. Shelby on democratizing the Fed
By Ed Mierzwinski - 10/23/2009 Over at Huffington Post, Ryan Grim has a nice post, Reorganize The Fed, explaining how the Federal Reserve's governance is anti-democratic. While the 7 Federal Reserve governors are in fact selected by the President and consented by the Senate, the regional Federal Reserve Banks are dominated by bank-selected directors and the Presidents of the regional fed banks -- chosen by those bankers -- actually rotate onto the Fed's Open Market Committee, which sets monetary policy for the country. As Grim explains, Senator Richard Shelby, ranking Republican on Senate Banking, is concerned:
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Committee approves accelerated implementation of Credit Card Act
By Ed Mierzwinski - 10/23/2009 The House Financial Services Committee has posted the full roster of amendments to the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act and the Expedited CARD Reform for Consumers Act of 2009, which were both approved yesterday. I've already written extensively on the CFPA victory. The credit card bill implements remaining provisions of the Credit CARD Act of (May) 2009 as of December 1, instead of next year. Unfortunately, "small" credit card companies with fewer than 2 million (that's million, not thousand) cards in circulation and gift cards were both exempted from the new deadlines. I would be not be surprised to find that some predatory high-fee credit cards marketed to small numbers of consumers will be able to take advantage of the exception, but at least the big banks will not. Had the big banks not abused consumers with high fees and interest rates since the new Credit CARD Act passed, this legislation would not have necessary. We expect it to pass the floor quickly and move to the Senate.
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Music: More from TACD/Paris Accord II meeting
By Ed Mierzwinski - 10/23/2009 music.jpgUpdate: This was a great panel, with a lot of spirited debate between the musicians who sample from others' work and those who don't. Hank Shocklee: "I was sampling before they made up the word. Many of these laws were written because of me." Various ideas were discussed to compensate musicians whose work is sampled by others, as well as to address numerous other problems in compensating musical creators. As the Paris Accord process goes forward, the group may be able to propose solutions.The Paris Accord II conference (previous blog) linking the creative community's interests to those of consumers continues. The current panel is discussing a variety of issues, from Napster and successors to the rise of re-mixing and new distribution systems and rights agreements, and trying to figure out a model that works for musicians to make a living by convincing consumers not to illegally download. From left, musician-composer Jonatha Brooke, musician-composer Hank Shocklee (known for his work with Public Enemy), Fred van Lohmann of Electronic Frontier Foundation, music copyright expert and consultant Ann Chaitovitz, Edouard Barreiro of the consumer group UFC-Que Choisir, manager-producer Peter Jenner (Pink Floyd, The Clash) and musician-composer Pia Raug. Participants are twittering at #tacd.
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Ed Mierzwinski
U.S. PIRG Consumer Program Director
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