Minnesota (USA) Politician Introduces Bill to Make Phone Books Optional

In another sign of a groundswell occurring in the United States to the relentless dumping of multiple, useless paper phone books by telecom companies, a state legislator in Minnesota has introduced a bill to make receiving a paper phone book optional. A recent local newscast (embedded below), brings us up to speed:

"...while some people still use phonebooks as a directory, some people, said Rep. Paul Gardner, DFL-Shoreview, use them as a doorstop.

Like many of us, Gardner has stacks of old phone books, and now has a new bill in the Minnesota House that would let us say no to more. "You're getting three, four, or five of them, and people are saying, 'That's too much,'" Gardner said.

Gardner wants publishers to let us decide: To not get phonebooks if we don't want them, or request extra copies if we do."

That sounds extremely bullet proof reasonable to me, its only giving people that will never, ever look at them the chance to save everybody the trouble.....but not if your a phone company clinging to that hustle for income. They even have a powerpoint instructing companies how to combat legislation that gives consumers choice.

There are also legislative efforts of a similar nature in Hawaii and Washington, thus far successfully squashed by the lobbyists.

I especially enjoy the end of the broadcast where the news reporters have to make 20 seconds of improvisation to fill the time, and in this instance they agree with the legislator and basically endorse his bill!



It seems that Minnesota is really hot on this issue. Here's a link to a one-minute video of a prominent local blogger dramatically returning his unwanted phone book to Verizon.

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