Paper or plastic?
"Calif. Senate passes first state ban on plastic bags" Associated Press August 31, 2014
SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers have approved a measure that would make the state the first to impose a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags.
The measure cleared the Senate on a 22-to-15 vote Friday and was sent to Governor Jerry Brown. It was approved by the Assembly a day earlier.
Senators who had previously opposed the bill, including incoming Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, a Los Angeles Democrat, this time supported the measure after protections were added for plastic bag manufacturers.
This bag has a hole in it!
The bill includes $2 million in loans to help manufacturers shift to producing reusable bags and lets grocers charge 10 cents each for paper and reusable bags.
The bill had sparked one of the most contentious debates in the last weeks of the legislative session, with aggressive lobbying by environmentalists and bag manufacturers.
For years, a statewide plastic bag ban has been an elusive goal for lawmakers trying to reduce the buildup of plastic waste in oceans and waterways that costs millions of dollars to clean up.
Should be an easy thing to patch up.
About 100 local jurisdictions in California have adopted similar bans, including Los Angeles and San Francisco.
I burn all mine.
In another environmental matter, the California Legislature on Friday cleared a package of bills that would overhaul the state’s longstanding “pump-as-you-please” groundwater policy.
The bills, also sent to the governor for his signature, were prompted by the worst drought in a generation in California.
It's the neglect of infrastructure that is doing it, and all the important people are being watered.
The state would begin regulating its groundwater supply for the first time under the legislative package. It would require some local governments to develop groundwater-management plans and allows the state to intervene if necessary.
The issue is critical as the state deals with its third year of drought, which has forced farmers to let fields go fallow and led to widespread unemployment in the Central Valley....
Which will contribute the food shortage, etc.
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