Environmental advocates say the best thing that can be said about California’s recent legislative session is that major environmental laws weren’t gutted.
A last minute effort to revamp to the state’s rigorous California Environmental Quality Act failed.
Dan Jacobson with Environment California says lawmakers passed very few significant bills this session. “There were bills that would have done more to advance solar power in the state, there were bills that would have protected our ocean by banning plastic bags and by getting rid of Styrofoam and these are bills that didn’t make it out of the legislature and that’s a disappointment.”
Another bill requiring manufacturers to recycle mattresses and a bill that extended grants to businesses to replace old diesel trucks also failed.
Jacobson says he thinks moderate Democrats that would have supported such measures didn’t because they face tough re-elections in newly-drawn districts.
