By Nick Pedone/Broadcast version by Mary Schuermann Kuhlman

Reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration

To help protect the environment, three Ohio communities have passed bans on single-use plastic bags, but now state legislators are trying to keep the bans from going into effect.

Orange Village, an eastern suburb of Cleveland with a population of about 3,300, was the first community to pass legislation successfully banning plastic bags, like the ones found in grocery stores, in 2018.

“There were a lot of us on council, starting with Council President Brandon Duber, that wanted to do something to something to help the environment and set an example to our peers,” said Orange Village Councilman Scott Bilsky, who personally reached out to smaller businesses in the community to make sure they supported the ban. Just last month Cuyahoga County and Bexley, a Columbus suburb, passed similar bans.

However, some state lawmakers feel as if these bag bans have a negative impact on small businesses. They argue that plastic bag bans force merchants to spend more money on paper bags, which are more expensive than the customary plastic.

Ohio lawmakers have introduced House Bill 242, a corresponding bill that would prevent local bans or taxes on plastic bags.

The bill states that the proposed legislation will “authorize the use of an auxiliary container for any purpose, to prohibit the imposition to a tax or fee on those containers, and to apply existing antilittering law to those containers.”

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, only three states have completely outlawed plastic bags: California, New York and Hawaii. More states have enacted legislation preventing local governments from doing the same. They are Arizona, Idaho, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and Florida.

Since being elected in 2011, Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Sunny Simon has strongly advocated against the use of plastic bags in order to help protect Lake Erie.

Particles from water bottles, straws and plastic bags litter the lake. The pieces of plastic that litter Erie’s shoreline are also harmful to humans, according to a study by Sherri Mason, a professor at the State University of New York at Fredonia, Lake Erie is polluted with about 46,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometer.

When plastic ends up in Lake Erie, animals eat these pieces of plastics, and the pollutants slowly work up the food chain to humans. In total, over 100 million pieces of plastic pollute Lake Erie, according to Mason’s study.

Last month, Cuyahoga County followed Orange Village, banning plastic bags from grocery stores, retailers and markets throughout the entire county. The ban is set to take effect January 1, 2020.

The proposed bans will not affect plastic bags used for pet waste, newspapers, dry cleaning, restaurant orders or prescriptions.

Alongside the legislation, Simon plans to roll out an educational campaign, giving Ohio’s second-largest county information about the hazards and perils of plastic pollution, how harmful plastics end up in Erie and why this ban makes sense for the county.

“I think with that education, that people really buy in and understand that we need to do something about it,” Simon said.

Just two hours after Cuyahoga County Council members voted to eliminate plastic bags, the city of Bexley, about 145 miles away, followed suit. Bexley’s city council voted 6-1 to approve the legislation.

House Bill 242 was introduced on May 13, just two weeks before the ban was passed in Cuyahoga County and Bexley. Now it remains unclear if the ban will ever take effect in Ohio.

Some of the state representatives strongly oppose individual communities passing these bans.

The sponsors of House Bill 242 did not return repeated calls to comment on their legislation for this story.

Simon says local governments are forced to pass their own environmental-protection laws because it is unlikely that the state of Ohio will do it.

When Bexley’s city council voted 6-1 in favor of banning plastic bags last month, Councilman Richard Sharp, a self-declared conservative, was the only dissenting vote.

“We should encourage people to be responsible and make the decision on their own,” Sharp said in last month’s meeting.

Sharp’s ideas for environmentalism partially coincide with the newly proposed House Bill 242.

“We need to educate our children, make them woke, that it is their responsibility to take care of the issue, not the government to tell people what to do,” Sharp said.

Simon said that the conservative makeup of Ohio’s government has been one of Cuyahoga County’s greatest challenges in preserving Lake Erie. House Bill 242 is another barricade that stands in the way of the movement for which Simon worked so diligently.

This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by The George Gund Foundation.


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A Michigan environmental group is addressing an appeal challenging the state's decision to approve the enclosure of the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline.

Built in 1953, this pipeline transports up to 540,000 barrels of petroleum daily through the Great Lakes.

Enbridge aims to build a protective tunnel around a four mile segment at the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

Environmental groups and tribal leaders want the state to reverse Enbridge's permit, citing concerns about a potential catastrophic oil spill.

The nonprofit group Oil & Water Don't Mix is dedicated to preventing oil spills and promoting clean energy - and they support the appeal.

David Holtz, an international coordinator with the group, discussed the next steps.

"And the next big hurdle that the tunnel will have will be during the federal permitting process," said Holtz, "so we're going to be focusing on that in the coming days."

Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy said in an email statement that Line 5's safety is exclusively regulated by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

Enbridge maintains that it also conducts internal inspections via an MRI-like tool known as a "pig" that travels the line, recording data on the pipe's thickness and looking for cracks, dents or signs of corrosion.

Holtz said his organization will continue its efforts to make the public and the federal government aware of what needs to be done regarding Line 5.

"The need for the Biden administration," said Holtz, "to take a stand in support of its own climate policy by rejecting the tunnel."

Holtz added that the permitting process, known as the Environmental Impact Study, will be open for public comment - and is set for early next year.

A new report shows New York will have to delay its 2030 climate goals.

The report from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority showed the state will be a few years off from its climate goals despite a fervent push toward renewables, due to pandemic-era inflation and growing clean energy demand.

Marguerite Wells, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, said now is not the time to slow down clean energy development.

"It's very hard to get things built in New York," Wells pointed out. "In the past few years, state agencies and private developers have worked really hard to improve the processes by which projects have to go through and get approvals on all kinds of different fronts, and those processes are mostly prepared now."

The report outlined ways New York can get 70% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Part of the involves increasing Tier 1 renewable energy solicitation to 5,600 gigawatt-hours annually. It also calls for allowing flexibility in procuring offshore wind projects, with the chance to get more than 9 gigawatts connected to the grid by 2035.

New York has invested billions in renewable energy projects to accomplish 70% of its goal. But the state is still coming up short 6 years before the goals must be met. Wells believes state lawmakers have to do their part to help the state remain on track. Several climate bills failed during the past legislative session, which she said could have helped homeowners transition to clean energy.

"Things like tax abatements and clean energy financing components, all kinds of stuff; the New York HEAT Act, a number of things," Wells outlined. "Many of those would have had a positive impact on homeowners looking to go green. Almost none of those bills got passed."

Wells hopes the bills get passed and signed into law during the 2025 legislative session. Plenty of other legislation such as the Build Public Renewables Act, the RAPID Act, and the All Electric Building Act ensure the state moves closer to its goals.

By Claire Carlson for The Daily Yonder.
Broadcast version by Trimmel Gomes for Florida News Connection for the Public News Service/Daily Yonder Collaboration

A newly updated wildfire risk map could help level the playing field for rural communities who don't have the resources to conduct their own wildfire risk assessments, according to the independent research group Headwaters Economics.

The map, first created by the U.S. Forest Service under the direction of Congress in 2018, shows wildfire risks at the county level and ways to mitigate those risks. Every U.S. county and tribal area is included in the map.

"With this tool, the data is available for everyone to use, no matter whether you have your own staffing and expertise to produce these kinds of resources or not," said Kelly Pohl, associate director of Headwaters Economics, in a Daily Yonder interview.

Headwaters Economics was brought on as a partner in the mapping project in 2020. The group made the map's new updates by incorporating the latest vegetation and climate data, advancements in wildfire hazard simulation modeling, and the most recent building and housing unit information from the Census Bureau.

Wildfire Risk Is Increasing

Better understanding local wildfire risk could be more important for communities than ever because of the map's recent findings, which shows that about one-third of all Americans live in counties with high wildfire risk.

"There are a lot of states in the East, especially in the Southeast, that have wildfire risk," Pohl said. "And we do see parts of the country have higher wildfire risk than we previously understood." Oregon and Washington are two such states, according to Pohl.

In many parts of the country, climate change has caused hotter temperatures and drier conditions. This exacerbates wildfire risk.

Grant Opportunities

The Biden administration has implemented several grant programs to better equip communities with wildfire resilience tools in light of this increasing risk.

In February 2024, the administration launched a $5 million pilot program for rural emergency response agencies to convert vehicles to wildland fire engines using slip-on water tank units.

In May 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) allocated another $250 million to the Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program that supports communities to develop wildfire protection plans and remove vegetation.

The wildfire risk map's new data underscores the need for the federal government to "continue these efforts through Community Wildfire Defense Grants and our work to increase the pace and scale of hazardous fuels reduction on federal and non-federal lands," according to USDA's Forest Service Chief Randy Moore, who was quoted in a press release.

Information about the grant programs and other funding opportunities can be found on the wildfire risk map's website.


Claire Carlson wrote this article for The Daily Yonder.


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