Plastic shopping bags revisited

A month or so ago the Dallas City Council played around with the idea of trying to live up to the city's self-proclaimed boast of being "green" by imposing some sort of limits on those insidious plastic bags found at most grocers and many retail stores. The ideas ranged from an outright ban to imposing a charge for each bag. The New York Times has a story today about how those ideas are being discussed in many cities all over the country, ranging from a vote in Seattle in August on whether to levy a 20-cent-per-bag charge on consumers to a proposal from New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to charge five cents a bag. (The city of San Francisco has banned plastic bags.) Here is the "nut graph" of the story:

"Some officials say they fear a public backlash if they were to raise fees in an economic downturn; others say governments need the revenue now more than ever. Still others say a cleaner environment, not revenue, is their only goal."

I'm thinking it's time Dallas revisit the idea of levying a tax on each of these bags used by consumers (that would be added to the bill at checkout). For one thing it could generate revenue the city apparently sorely needs. For another, it could put Dallas at the forefront of environmental sensitivity. Here's the deal: If consumers feel the charge is too much of a hardship on them, they can switch to reusable bags like the one pictured above left -- bags many of us use already.