California Senate Rejects Plastic Bag Ban

By Nathan McIntire

A Senate Bill designed to ban the use of plastic bags in stores across the state of California failed to pass a Senate vote this week. It did not receive the 21 votes needed to pass. The measure failed by a vote of 18-17 with four abstentions.  

Had it passed, Senate Bill 405 - authored by Los Angeles Senator Alex Padilla - would have required grocery stores and other large retail organizations from providing shoppers with plastic bags starting on Jan. 1 2015. 

Here is how the full Senate voted:

Anderson, Joel - No
Beall, Jim - Yes
Berryhill, Tom - No
Block, Marty - Yes 
Calderon, Ron - No 
Cannella, Anthony - No
Corbett, Ellen M. - Yes
Correa, Lou - No
de León, Kevin - No
DeSaulnier, Mark - Yes
Emmerson, Bill - No
Evans, Noreen - Yes
Fuller, Jean - No
Gaines, Ted - No
Galgiani, Cathleen - Yes
Hancock, Loni - Yes
Hernandez, Ed - Yes
Hill, Jerry - Yes
Hueso, Ben 
Huff, Bob - No
Jackson, Hannah-Beth - Yes
Knight, Steve - No
Lara, Ricardo - No
Leno, Mark -Yes
Lieu, Ted W. - Yes
Liu, Carol - Yes
Monning, Bill - Yes
Nielsen, Jim - No
Padilla, Alex - Yes
Pavley, Fran -Yes
Price, Jr., Curren D.  
Roth, Richard D. - Yes
Steinberg, Darrell - Yes
Torres, Norma J. - No
Walters, Mimi - No
Wolk, Lois 
Wright, Roderick D. 
Wyland, Mark - No
Yee, Leland Y. - No

While the ban did not pass, the Senate did agree to Padilla's request to reconsider the bill, however there is no date set as to when that will happen.

There are currently 72 local communities in California that have a plastic bag ban, including Malibu, Los Angeles County, San Francisco, Santa Monica, Long Beach, Pasadena and West Hollywood.

Mark Daniels, chairman of the pro-plastic American Progressive Bag Alliance issued a statement supporting the Senate vote saying, “ A ban on 100 percent recyclable plastic bags would hurt the environment and threaten jobs. The American Progressive Bag Alliance works hard to protect American jobs in the plastic bag manufacturing and recycling industry – including 2,000 in California – and our organization has repeatedly called for an honest debate on this issue.  

"We thank the members of the California Senate who rejected this misguided policy prescription based on unfounded stats, junk science and myths, and we hope lawmakers will continue to make responsible decisions on behalf of California’s environment and economy.

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