The $1.4 million the plastics industry spent to defeat a grocery bag tax initiative paid off yesterday when Seattle voters defied their green reputation to reject the tax, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. The measure would have charged shoppers 20 cents per plastic or paper bag as an incentive to reduce disposable bag use; 58% of Seattle voters said no.
Proponents of the ban, which had been passed by the city council but blocked by a petition to put it before voters, spent just $80,000 to support it.
(More lobbying stories.)