Sen. Marc Basnight wants to ban plastic bags in the Outer Banks.

The Democratic Senate leader is pushing a bill that would ban plastic shopping bags in coastal counties that he represents. If successful, the pilot program could be implemented statewide.

Shoppers in Dare, Currituck and Hyde counties would receive bags made of 100 percent recycled paper, which cost more, or bring their own reusable bags.

Last week, Basnight began using paper bags for takeout orders at his restaurant.

Environmentalists blame the bags for causing problems with litter and harming waterborne creatures, but retailers warned that the recycled bags cost more.

"The cost gets passed on to consumers," said Andy Ellen, a lobbyist for the N.C. Retail Merchants Association. (N&O)

Maybe there's an alternative to the trees vs. billboards argument environmentalists and sign owners have every year.

And maybe a group meeting under the auspices of the state Department of Transportation will find that Third Way, Lynn Bonner reports.

Over the past few years, environmental groups have successfully fought billboard owners' attempts to cut more trees around their signs so that people passing by have longer to read them.

They were tough fights that pitted billboard-loving senators against environmental groups, the DOT and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Last week, group representing billboard owners, environmental groups, local governments, petroleum marketers, restaurants and hotels began meeting to try to fashion compromises on tree rules, zoning issues and other billboard matters.

The group is using a facilitator and plans to meet twice a month to come up with new rules, said Ted Sherrod, a DOT roadside environmental engineer.

"I guess using the expertise from a facilitator will hopefully allow us to end up with a third alternative that’s better than what we've ended up with before," he said.

Carl Mumpower has shared his definition of "envirojacker."

In an e-mail to Dome, the Asheville City Councilman and Republican Congressional candidate gives this explanation for the term, which he apparently coined in a recent press release:

Homo sapiens prone to selective use of facts, extreme views, and unsupported science related to environmental issues. This species is highly resistant to rational, realistic, and scientifically grounded environmental initiative and may, when challenged or denied, behave in an aggressive and destructive manner. There have been reports of associated tendencies toward manipulation and entitlement. 

Previously: Mountain Xpress proposes an alternative definition. 

An Asheville weekly confirms that "envirojacker" is a new word.

After noting that Asheville City Councilman and Republican Congressional candidate Carl Mumpower had used the word in a recent press release, we at Dome wondered if it was perhaps mountain slang that we'd not heard down here in Raleigh.

But a writer for the Mountain Xpress says she's never heard of it either. In addition, the alt-weekly suggests the word could be turned on its head:

Then again, the phrase "envirojacker," which combines "environment" and "jack," could have potential as a slang term among environmentalists. As in, those "envirojackers" have totally jacked the landscape with their coal mine, and they've done jack to clean up the pollution. 

That's the trouble with neologisms. They don't always end up meaning what you wanted them to mean.

John Edwards said Americans should give up their SUVs.

At a forum held Tuesday by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union, the former North Carolina senator said that Americans should be asked to drive more fuel-efficient cars.

"I think Americans are actually willing to sacrifice," he said.

He said as president he would focus on energy conservation and institute a cap on carbon dioxide emissions. He was asked how he could call for sacrifice while living in a 28,000-squre-foot house.

He replied that he came from nothing and worked hard.

"I have no apologies whatsoever for what I've done with my life," he said. (AP)