Ban on plastic grocery bags defeated at California Senate
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California's Senate has defeated a bill to impose a first-in-the-nation ban on plastic grocery bags, lawmakers said on Wednesday.
This was the second time that the bill, AB 1998, failed a Senate vote at an overnight session, according to Julia Brownley, a Democrat from Santa Monica.
The new ban, rejected by a 21 to 14 vote, would have included grocery stores, convenience stores and drugstores.
"I think we missed a great opportunity," said Brownley, the bill's author.
"Communities across the state were waiting for the state to adopt a uniform, statewide ban on single-use bags before they adopt their own ordinances. The state failed them."
The bill passed the Assembly in June and had the support of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, but faced a withering and well- financed advertising and lobbying campaign from the plastic bag manufacturing industry.
Schwarzenegger had joined other Hollywood luminaries, including actresses Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Rosario Dawson, in support of the proposed ban on plastic shopping bags.
Schwarzenegger had said he would have signed the measure into law.
Supporters claimed that the bags, which are used for a few minutes of shopping but remain in the eco-system for centuries, are one of the biggest contributors to beach and ocean pollution.
Opponents, led by the plastics industry, called the measure a job killer.
San Francisco and some other cities have enacted such bans already.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said last week that the city will impose such a ban no matter whether the state's legislature passes the bill or not.
