Bad Year For Environmental Laws in Sacramento

For those wishing for new green laws out of the state Legislature -- well, there's always next year.

2012 was a bad year for environmental laws, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Efforts to ban polystyrene packaging, also known as Styrofoam, and to ban plastic bags both failed, the newspaper reported.

Other efforts, "smaller victories," did make it to the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown before the Legislature ended business for the year on Saturday. They include a limit on the fees cities charge to citizens who put solar panels on their homes, a ban on using dogs to hunt bears, a bill to delay any state park closure for two years, and three bills to make minor reforms to the state Fish and Game Department (including renaming it the "Department of Fish and Wildlife"), the newspaper reported.

The more ambitious bills failed due a combination of a poor economy, vulnerable lawmakers in redrawn districts who were unwilling to afraid to draw the ire of powerful lobby groups, and the giant state budget deficit, according to the newspaper.