Today's plastic bag hearing: No, it wasn't about a ban or a tax

I hear NPR hyped it, and I know TV crews showed up, but the much ballyhooed plastic bag hearing today wasn't actually about banning the plastic bag -- or even about taxing it.

"If China Can Ban The Plastic Bag, Why Can't We?" read the email headline from enviro-group Green Ambassadors urging environmentalists to show up to the LA County Board of Supervisors hearing. "Plastic Bag Ban decision by LA County Supervisors," screamed an email from a Greenopia activist-employee.

But the hearing wasn't about a ban.

A big crowd showed up to the pre-hearing rally on the steps of the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, wearing red, waving posters, and sporting "Ban the Bag" buttons.

But the hearing wasn't about banning the bag.

The line was so long that I waited 35 minutes to get through security (the line ahead of me, above). Post-security gate, I finally sat down to take in this hearing -- which wasn't about banning the plastic bag.

Alright -- What the hearing WAS about: A quibble over the goals for VOLUNTARY plastic bag reduction efforts. Basically, the question came down to whether big stores should aim to reduce plastic bag use by 30% or 35% by 2010.

On the 30% side was the California Grocers Association and other business interests. On the 35% was Heal the Bay and other enviro orgs, plus red-shirted individual environmentalists.

Guess who won! I'll give you a hint: It wasn't Heal the Bay.

Yep, we're stuck with the same old "voluntary plastic ban reduction effort," aka the status quo, aka nothing -- until at least July 2010.

More in a bit.

Update: The Skinny on L.A. County's new anti-plastic bag legislation

Photos by Siel