Former New Mexico governor Bruce King was renown for his frequent malapropisms and contorted logic.

For example, he once refused to back a bill pushed by loan-shark lobbyists – but, he pledged that it if the legislature passed the thing, he would sign it. Well, the bill did pass… but Bruce vetoed it! The lobbyists swarmed him, crying that he had given his promise. Yes, the governor conceded, but “we all know that a promise is not a commitment.”

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Apparently, Coca-Cola executives have been studying Gov. King’s verbal backflip, for the multibillion-dollar corporate behemoth suddenly announced this month that it was adopting his “a-promise-is-not-a-commitment” ploy. The beverage barons are using King’s dictum to squirm out of the widely-ballyhooed promise they made just a few years ago to curtail the corporation’s contamination of our planet with plastic waste.

Coke has been the world’s #1 plastic polluter six years in a row, so its previous pledge to cut its plastic trash in half by 2030 would’ve had a major impact. But, oops, the honchos now say that was never a commitment – just a “voluntary environmental goal.” That goal, they explain, has “evolved,” so now they’re focused on imposing “efficient resource allocation to deliver lasting positive impact.”

You don’t need a BS detector to translate that corporate gobbledygook. Coke’s “resource allocation” will defund its environmental efforts to further enrich its wealthiest shareholders, delivering a “lasting positive impact” for those few. And for the many who will continue absorbing the deadly petro-polymers that Coca-Cola carelessly discharges into our air, water, soil, food, and bodies – well, tough luck.

Don’t be fooled by voluntary anti-pollution requirements. I promise you, they are hoaxes.

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