Mylar balloons could be permanently deflated after all

A nearly defunct bill to ban mylar balloons in California was resurrected at the 11th hour Thursday, passing the full Senate 22-17. The bill, sponsored by Pasadena Democratic state Sen. Jack Scott, would impose $100 fines for those caught selling or distributing the shiny, helium-filled balloons starting in 2010.

Scott had until tomorrow to get the bill passed out of the chamber this session, according to spokeswoman Wendy Gordon. He had lobbied hard since it fell five votes shy of passage in early May, collecting endorsements from major power utilities including PG&E, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric, as well as public safety and hospital groups including L.A. County Sheriff's, the California Professional Firefighters, Providence St. Joseph Medical Center and the California Hospital Association.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers also joined Scott in supporting the bill, as did Glendale and Burbank Water & Power, which first brought the bill to the senator. Pasadena Water & Power has stayed out of the fight, telling Gordon that mylar outages do not affect the city as much because most of its power lines are underground.

Arrayed against Scott's bill was the Balloon Council, a lobby made up of balloon distributors, retailers and manufacturers. The council even went as far as to create a Web site, www. savetheballoons.com, to argue its point that the bill would hurt their business and place too much responsibility on retailers and not enough on the customers who purchase -- and subsequently release -- the balloons.

But those concerns apparently weren't enough to sway most senators, who heeded the complaints of the utilities and hospitals lobbying for the bill.

From Gordon's release about the bill's passage: