Today is January 16th, 2012 so it’s been thirty days since Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry of the Energy & Environment committee asked that further information regarding a city-wide plastic bag ban/paper bag fee be brought for review. There are no meetings scheduled today, in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day but perhaps we will hear something this week?

After an exhaustive search of today’s greatest resource for up to the minute news, the Internet, there doesn’t seem to be any news of when the city council will hear the requested reports from the chief legislative analyst, the city administrative officer, and the Bureau of Sanitation.

The Los Angeles City Council’s agendas for the week do not have an Energy & Environment committee meeting listed and there is no mention of the ban on Citymaven.com-a news website with a daily breakdown of the Los Angeles City Council’s happenings and Los Angeles politics or the Los Angeles Times’ site since December. A hop, skip and a jump over to Heal The Bay, Surfrider, and Green LA Coalition, organizations that support a bag ban and have been vocal about the issue, turned up nothing either.

Surfrider’s Rise Above Plastics campaign in their Coastal Blog mentions that last week San Luis Obispo (SLO) County’s Integrated Waste Management passed an ordinance banning plastic bags. The ordinance will also charge a ten cent fee for paper bags to take effect in October this includes incorporated and unincorporated parts of the county. The post says that the ordinance was six years in the making for SLO and faced opposition. It could still face trouble because Sanluisobispo.com reported, “Opponents of the ordinance immediately said they would challenge it in court. The Save the Plastic Bag Coalition said after the meeting that it would file a lawsuit within 30 days. The coalition served a “threat of litigation” to the board.”

The Save the Plastic Bag Coalition is an independent group that works to inform “decision-makers and the public about the environmental impacts of plastic bags, paper bags, and reusable bags. The anti-plastic bag campaign is largely based on myths, misinformation, and exaggerations. We are responding with environmental truth. That is why we are asking for Environmental Impact Reports. We believe that banning plastic bags is unjustified based on the true facts.”

The Los Angeles City Council wants to avoid legal battles from similar groups which is part of the reason there was a thirty day period granted for the preparation of an environmental impact report before voting.

No matter which side of the issue you agree with bag bans are popping up on city council’s radars across the country.  The Los Angeles Times reported, “Support for some kind of bag ban appears to be strong on the City Council, where several members have pledged to get the measure passed before March 31, 2012.” March isn’t too far away and it seems the council could be looking at the issue any day now.