Hi Leslie,

We did it, together.

Yesterday, the California State Assembly passed a bill to ban single-use plastic shopping bags (AB 1998). Next stop is the state Senate.

A ban on plastic bags will put a huge dent in the amount of plastic that ends up swirling around in the Pacific Garbage Patch, harming turtles and other wildlife, and marring our beaches.

The way the ban works is simple: Retailers can no longer give away plastic shopping bags. The idea is that people will bring their own bags. If you forget your reusable bags, the store will provide recycled paper bags at the cost of the bag to the store.

This was basically a buzzer beater. The final push in the Assembly went better than we could have possibly expected, and your help was critical. We witnessed a huge groundswell of public support, and that support is why I get to write this e-mail, the victory e-mail, this morning.

To increase the media attention, we held five press conferences on Tuesday, which received press coverage all over the state (31 different media outlets covered our events). Among them was a CBS 2 story, [1] KPBS piece [2] and an article in the San Francisco Gate [3].

Celebrities Amy Smart, Rosario Dawson and Rachelle Lefevre flew up to Sacramento to advocate for the bill. Together, we met with legislator after legislator to shore up support for our ban.

When the bill came up four votes shy on the first roll call, you helped with last-minute phone calls and e-mails. You got the word out on Facebook, on blogs all over the state, and in numerous other channels. Our staff organizers in San Diego worked on getting dozens of last minute phone calls in while I worked in the Assembly to convince on-the-fence assemblymembers to do the right thing.

I can tell you right now: Without all your e-mails, donations and phone calls, we would not have passed this bill. You put this issue on the radar screens of legislators, and provided Environment California with the resources to continue to educate and advocate on behalf of our oceans.

I would also like to thank Assemblymember Julia Brownley (the bill's author), Speaker John Perez and Assemblymember Hector De La Torre for their support.

The next stop for this bill is the state Senate, and it too will be a tough fight. But together we've got what it takes to win.

Thanks again for making it possible.

Sincerely,

Dan Jacobson
Environment California Legislative Director
http://www.environmentcalifornia.org


P.S. Again, I want to thank those of who donated this week to our campaign. If you haven't yet, you can donate on this page:
https://www.environmentcalifornia.org/action/oceans/support-the-gpc?id4=ES


[1] http://cbs2.com/video/?id=136201%40kcbs.dayport.com

[2] http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/jun/01/calif-enviro-groups-urge-passage-plastic...

[3] http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/02/MN6N1DO77G.DTL


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