The lawsuit by the bag industry against the City of Oakland is set for Hearing January 29; sometime thereafter there should be an initial ruling on whether a bag ban requires an Environmental Impact Report, a costly endeavor that could sidetrack individual city bans. That issue will need to have some resolution before most agencies will act to ban bags for now.

The Sub-Committee also received information on potential state legislation to re-allow a tax or fee on plastic bags. (Current law does not allow individual cities to tax bags or charge a fee, but the bags can be banned outright.)

When the Sub-Committee was given an update on the County action, Environmental Commissioner Gray (me!) called it “cowardly.”

Meanwhile, the Sub-Committee will be recommending that the Environmental Commission as a whole begin taking testimony from residents, scientists, and business people on the issue to help it decide whether or not to recommend a ban for Pasadena. That testimony is likely to begin in March.

After the meeting, I was introduced to a representative from Vons who had attended the meeting. He did seem to see the writing on the wall for plastic (otherwise the 75% reduction within one year in the county law would not even be thinkable) but nevertheless resisted the idea that the four Vons stores in Pasadena should try a local experiment and go plastic-bag free . . . .

Folks interested in this issue might want to write or email Vons directly, encouraging them to take a leadership role on the issue rather than an obstructionist one . . . and stay tuned for opportunities to testify in Pasadena (esp. local residents, workers and businesses).