Unfortunately, the bill to ban single-use plastic bags failed to pass the state Senate late Tuesday night. [1]

The American Chemistry Council, a lobbying group representing ExxonMobil and DuPont, used every political trick to stall out the bill. They contributed money directly to swing votes, made tortured arguments about the bag ban being anti-environmental, ran TV ads, and swarmed the Capitol with lobbyists. [2] [3]

We took on an industry that sells 19 billion bags in California every year. In other words, we took on Goliath. And while we made incredible progress this year, we came up just short of victory.

I'm disappointed, but not defeated. We'll keep advancing local bans in cities and towns, in counties and on universities -- making continual progress in our work to cut the unneeded plastic and Styrofoam waste that is building up in the ocean.

Already, we've seen 40 local bans up and down the state. Expect to see that number grow.