Regis Philbin
Jun 25th, 2008, 06:57 PM
http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_9686239?nclick_check=1
Mayors' bottle ban is no specious attack on Big Water
By Joe Soucheray
Article Last Updated: 06/24/2008 10:44:11 PM CDT
U.S. mayors, having solved all other problems, resolved at their annual conference, in Miami, to stop providing bottled water for employees and guests. On the occasions when I have called on City Hall, I do not remember being offered a bottle of water and I am not generationally slotted to have been offered something stronger from an office drawer, although I sometimes think we would be better off if mayors took a swig of Old Grand Dad and put aside the affectations of Aquafina.
And now it sounds like they will, 250 mayors or so signing on to sing the praises of their own municipal water systems while also sheepishly having to confess that's where bottled water probably comes from in the first place. Not to mention that municipal water systems are tested, do not feature plastic bottles, which need to be recycled, and cost less. Because we already pay for municipal water systems, we are paying twice for water when we buy it at the store.
A bottled-water-industry group spokesman said that the move "was sound-bite environmentalism.'' Normally, I am alert to attacks on profitable large corporations, especially by the likes of big-city mayors, who need more profitable large corporations, not fewer. But not this time. Nice try, bottled-water industry, but this ridiculous scam has played itself out, for a variety of reasons.
In the first place, I'm not sure this is merely sound-bite material. That would imply that not much is at stake, but given the multiplier.
Mayors' bottle ban is no specious attack on Big Water
By Joe Soucheray
Article Last Updated: 06/24/2008 10:44:11 PM CDT
U.S. mayors, having solved all other problems, resolved at their annual conference, in Miami, to stop providing bottled water for employees and guests. On the occasions when I have called on City Hall, I do not remember being offered a bottle of water and I am not generationally slotted to have been offered something stronger from an office drawer, although I sometimes think we would be better off if mayors took a swig of Old Grand Dad and put aside the affectations of Aquafina.
And now it sounds like they will, 250 mayors or so signing on to sing the praises of their own municipal water systems while also sheepishly having to confess that's where bottled water probably comes from in the first place. Not to mention that municipal water systems are tested, do not feature plastic bottles, which need to be recycled, and cost less. Because we already pay for municipal water systems, we are paying twice for water when we buy it at the store.
A bottled-water-industry group spokesman said that the move "was sound-bite environmentalism.'' Normally, I am alert to attacks on profitable large corporations, especially by the likes of big-city mayors, who need more profitable large corporations, not fewer. But not this time. Nice try, bottled-water industry, but this ridiculous scam has played itself out, for a variety of reasons.
In the first place, I'm not sure this is merely sound-bite material. That would imply that not much is at stake, but given the multiplier.