Monday, December 05, 2011

More on Coke’s Role in a Shelved Bottle Ban for Nat'l Parks

Jon Jarvis, the director of the National Park Service, has said that its decision to scuttle a planned ban on small plastic water bottles at Grand Canyon National Park had nothing to do with opposition from the Coca-Cola Company. But a November 2010 e-mail released on Thursday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request tells a different story. Mr. Jarvis cited only one concern, Coca-Cola’s contributions to the National Park Foundation, in discussing the ban with a regional manager of the Park Service. “While I applaud the intent” of the ban, he wrote in the e-mail, “there are going to be consequences, since Coke is a major sponsor of our recycling efforts.” “Let’s talk about this” before the park “pulls the plug,” he added. The latest documents also raise the possibility that Mr. Jarvis was ready to prevent the bottle ban from going forward at parks besides Utah’s Zion National Park, which pioneered the idea of such a ban three years ago and won a park service award for doing so. An e-mail in six months ago from Jo Pendry, who was serving as the national parks headquarters official responsible for park concessions, said that an aide to Mr. Jarvis told her that “the director’s view is NOT to ban the sale of bottled water but to go the choice route.” A draft policy document obtained in response to the Freedom of Information Act cautions park managers to “consider other factors prior to making a decision to reduce of eliminate the sale of water or other beverages in disposable plastic containers.” “Some visitors have come to rely on the availability of refrigerated bottled water for sale in our parks,” it said...more

The same envirocrats, who decry the influence of say big oil money, think its a different situation when the dinero is headed to them.

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