I had occasion to be in several House office buildings today. Styrofoam is back.

[Stinky The Clown]

Childish, pandering, assholic repubicans look like clowns with this one:

Back when she was Da Boss Uv Da House, Nancy Pelosi started a vigorous program of environmentally responsible changes at the House office buildings. It has been extraordinarily successful, both environmentally and financially. Savings have reached, overall, into the tens of millions. Just lighting costs (they are switching to CFLs and thence to LEDs) have gone down more than $3,000,000.

http://cao.house.gov/greenthecapitol/

>snip<
In 2007, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi established the Green the Capitol program to make the U.S. House of Representatives a national leader in resource stewardship and sustainable business practices. Since then, the House has changed the way it does business.

Green the Capitol set several overarching goals: to reduce energy consumption by 50 percent over ten years ending 2017; to use only electricity generated by renewable sources; and to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint.

The program’s success to date can be measured in statistics: the diversion of tens of thousands of pounds of waste from landfills and the cutting of hundreds of thousands of pounds of carbon emissions and hundreds of thousands of kilowatt hours of electricity. Perhaps more important is what the program represents: a fundamental transformation of perspective and behavior among the House’s thousands of employees.
>snip<
More at this link: http://cao.house.gov/GreenTheCapitol/About-Us/Our-Story/

One of the things she did was cause a change in the various cafeterias to compostable cups, glasses, plates, silverware, etc. The program, like all else in Pelosi's initiative was successful. Landfill waste from the cafeterias was cut to maybe 10% of what it was. True enough, the compostables cost a bit more than their petroleum-based alternatives, but that does not cost the taxpayers one thin dime. The cost is borne entirely out of sales in the foodservice operations.

None of that matters to clowns like Boner or his liddle buddy, Clark Kent Cantor.

For no good reason apart from pandering meanie-ness, they gave the order to switch back to petro-based crap. Waste volume to the landfill immediately increased exponentially.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/24/nation/la-na-styrofoam-20110325

'Compostable' utensils: Republicans scrap 'compostable' utensils in House cafeterias
Republicans say 'compostable' utensils were not cost- or energy-efficient, so they bring back the foam and plastic. Green-minded Democrats protest.

March 24, 2011|By Richard Simon, Los Angeles times

First the Republicans took over the House. Now it's the cafeterias.

Republicans say the use of "compostable" cups and utensils, a key part of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Green the Capitol initiative, was "neither cost-effective nor energy-efficient." So they brought back plastic utensils and foam cups, ditching the eco-friendly dining wares of the Democratic era.

The replacement spoons, knives, forks and cups are creating quite a stir, dividing lawmakers largely along party lines.

Democratic staffers are talking about boycotting the cafeterias, which serve about 230,000 meals a month, mostly to staff members but also to the public. The issue sprouted a Facebook page, "Stop the Styrofoam Invasion: Bring cardboard back to the House Cafeteria." Some staffers are bringing in their own mugs. Others are becoming office baristas and making their own coffee.

The controversy over cups and forks shows how quickly tensions can escalate in this hyperpartisan Congress, which returns to Washington next week to confront more weighty issues: the stalemate over the national budget and President Obama's handing of the military campaign in Libya.

>snip<

Blowback has been swift. Dems have been talking about it on the House floor. The media is covering it and portraying it for the foolishness it is. Customers are derisively angry. Early indications are that the repbicans will quietly cave and rescind the order.

Stay tuned.

[GoCubsGo]

1. Petty, childish assholes.

[lunatica]

2. Petro based styrofoam benefits Big Oil

Unless it isn't consumed. There's your reason. Boner is of the obvious opinion that if it benefits Big Oil then it's the most desirable.

Simplicity itself.

[Stinky The Clown]

9. It does, of course, but . . . .

. . . . it isn't as if big bidniss is ignored if they stayed with the compostable alternatives. Their raw materials are corn and soybeans. Texaco or Archer Daniels Midland . . . . ? Archer Daniels Midland or Texaco . . . . ?

No, this was all about being petty pricks.

[jmowreader]

10. I don't think that's it at all

Republicans have this deep-seated need to reverse everything Democrats do no matter what it is. Witness Dubya's first months in office, where all he did was go on vacation, do "First Lady" duties and reverse Clinton-era policies wholesale.

So...if the Democrats would have decided to go into the House Dining Room, drill holes in the chair rail a foot apart and put little American flags in the holes, the Republicans as their first act in office would have been to remove the flags and putty over the holes.

[AC_Mem]

3. Where are the jobs Boner?

Instead of a job plan we get THIS?

What idiots!

[Stinky The Clown]

14. Ironoically, this cost one poor wage slave their livelihood.

They had a big grinder to chop up the compostable waste to effect transport and easier composting. The person that operated it is now looking for work.

Thanks Boner . . . . ya fucking prick.

[CrispyQ]

4. They are such contrary little pricks! --nt

[Hun Joro]

5. I don't know why but this makes me see red more than other single thing those idiots have done...

[Stinky The Clown]

6. I know why . . .

Because it is PURE, 100%, petty prickiness.

There was no good reason to fuck with the program apart from pandering to the teabag freshmen.

[sharp_stick]

8. Exactly right

This is the kind of shit the pukes excel at. They'll stand in front of you toss insults out with this idiotic and infuriating tiny little smirk on their faces because they know it infuriates you and there isn't a damned thing short of getting arrested that you can do about it.

[Stinky The Clown]

16. You've perfectly captured them

They all have that same air.

Mike Pence is one of the worst in this respect.

[gratuitous]

7. It's the Republican agenda

In this case, writ very small: Anything that makes the dirty fucking hippies mad is a good thing. Sure, Pelosi's initiatives cut down on waste, saved money, and was good for the environment; but when you're a manly Republican man, you don't go in for that touchy-feely, girly stuff.

In "Lord of the Rings," when Gandalf goes to Isengard after the Ents have laid it to waste in their righteous wrath against Saruman, he notices that even the White Hand emblem at the entrance has been thrown down and smashed. Gandalf chuckles that the Ents overlooked no detail. In the same vein, Republicans have never found any issue too petty to be attended to, no detail that can't be blown up into a Fox controversy.

[lpbk2713]

11. They can't allow a Dem's idea to look like a good one.

I'm still pissed about RayGun removing Jimmy Carter's solar panels from the White House.

{Click}


They're assholes, every one. They will always work against what is best for the country.

[bvar22]

12. But what about the "Freedom Fries"?

Can we keep those?

[Stinky The Clown]

15. Funnily enough, Pelosi leaned on them to change that back to "French fries" and so far . . . .

. . . . they remain such.

[in_cog_ni_to]

13. G-d. I hate Repukes so much. They make my blood boil.

Honestly. WTF is wrong with trying to save our planet AND tax dollars they feign to be so freakin' concerned about?

It's such an easy thing to do and I just hate this "well, if Democrats think it's good, then we hate it" attitude. Repukes SUCK.