The chairman of the Legislature's Natural Resources Committee is on a mission to eliminate 90 percent of those ubiquitous plastic grocery bags Mainers now use by the millions each year and believes it will take a per-bag fee to make it happen.

Rep. Ted Koffman, D-Bar Harbor, has a bill he's trying to get in for next year that will be reviewed by the Legislative Council on Thursday. Koffman's is one of 134 bills legislators have asked the council to reconsider after it initially rejected all but 148 out of 566 submitted.

"Whether or not the bill is approved, we're going to keep working," Koffman said, to come up with a solution that involves both a carrot and stick to change behavior.

Koffman's proposal would include a 20-cent fee on plastic bags, which he said is a negotiable "starting point."

He said some of the money raised would go to educate the public about the need to reduce the number of plastic bags that fill up landfills or end up floating in waterways or clogging drains. The fee also could help subsidize reusable shopping bags for store customers or pay for prizes in a lottery that could only be entered by those using specially marked reusable bags.

"If you put a fee on it you're sending a message that might influence customer choice," he said. "On the other hand, if there's a lottery attached to it," that incentive could draw more people in "for the chance to nail the thousand dollars worth of fruits or vegetables or cash."

Koffman said he is in discussions with Hannaford Supermarkets and the Maine Grocers Association. He said any bill he proposes has to be the result of a cooperative effort among groceries and the Legislature or he won't pursue it. And, he said, the bill would not target small stores.

"I wouldn't want to take action that makes it hard on smaller businesses," he said.

Amie Joseph, director of the Maine Grocers Association, said Koffman has been very open about his plans and there are ongoing discussions about what should happen next.

She said her group would like to spend the next year educating the public and stores about the need to recycle plastic bags, use only the amount needed and look at alternatives.

"We're interested in what's going on all over the country and pretty much all over the world," she said. "We are hoping we can use this year to just start educating our stores and educating our customers."

"Our main concern is jumping into legislation without really figuring out what the problem is and what the goal is and levying a fee on consumers without letting consumers know what choices they already have," she said.

Maine, for example, already requires stores to provide a place to recycle plastic bags, yet not all consumers know that.

"Whether (his bill) gets in or not, we're going to continue to go forward and be as proactive as possible. We just want to get out ahead of the curve," Joseph said.

San Francisco became the first U.S. city to outlaw plastic bags al- together earlier this year in a phased-in program that affects large supermarkets and pharmacy chains. Stores will have the option of using compostable bags made of corn starch or bags made of recyclable paper.

Koffman said his proposal is modeled after one in Ireland, which imposed a 15-cent tax on plastic bags in 2002 that resulted in a 90 percent reduction in their use. That fee was just raised to 22 cents.

The idea of a tax on plastic bags also has captured the attention of progressive groups including the Center for Policy Alternatives in Washington, D.C., which tries to educate and cajole legislators to adopt progressive legislation.

According to its Web site, 12 million barrels of oil are needed to produce the 100 billion plastic bags Americans consume each year. And while plastic bags can be recycled, only about five percent are.

Koffman said that because of the rising price of oil, groceries would like to get out of the plastic bag business. He referred to a program at Hannaford where a credit is given to customers, who bring their own bag.

"A number of retailers would prefer not to have to buy all this plastic bag stuff," he said. "It's not like I'm ramming something down an unwilling throat."