LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
Rep. Illg gave notice today that he¡¯ll be calling his balloon release bill, HB 581, tomorrow, May 7, back to the House floor for a vote. The House convenes at 1:00 but it¡¯s likely to be close to an hour (or more) before they get to that section of business.
HB 581 bans balloon releases and has been a goal of environmental groups for years. Since it enforces bans with criminal penalties in the form of fines, it raises revenue, and therefore requires 70 votes to pass (2/3 of 105 legislators).
A reminder that those who opposed the bill during the last vote were: Amedee, Bacala, Beaullieu, Carlson, Dickerson, Echols, Egan, Emerson, Firment, Galle, Horton, LaFleur, Larvadain, McMakin, and Owen. If you know any of these legislators and believe they may just have been confused about the bill's purpose, please correct them.
The following legislators missed the vote the first time it hit the floor: Braud, Brown, Carter, W., Chassion, Coates, Dewitt, Freeman, Hilferty, Hughes, Johnson, T., Jordan, Kerner, Landry, M., Marcelle, Mena, Phelps, Thompson, Walters, Wilder, and Young. Reps. Braud, Coates and Johnson were on the Natural Resources and Environment Committee that approved the bill, and presumably still support it. It is critical that these members are present for tomorrow's vote.
If you need talking points for a phone call or email, a few pertinent facts to share:
1. Balloons negatively impact the environment by littering lakes, streams, and beaches. It is basically the same as intentionally throwing trash into the ocean or the ground.
2. Even balloons marketed as biodegradable or eco-friendly can still take years to disintegrate. This means that they are not better for the environment than standard balloons.
3. When balloons make their way into the water, their floating pieces and tattered ends can resemble jellyfish or other sea life that is consumed by marine animals like fish, sea turtles, and dolphins. When the pieces of latex or Mylar are mistaken for food and are ingested, they can get lodged in the digestive tract, inhibiting the animal's ability to eat, and it can cause a slow and painful death by starvation.
4. Wildlife can also fall victim to balloons and its strings when the pieces fall to the ground or onto bushes and trees. Birds have been found injured with ribbons wrapped around their wings or beaks, and have strangled themselves when they become entangled in strings that are attached to power lines and trees. And just like marine animals, they can succumb to a painful death after ingesting balloons.
5. Entergy Louisiana has raised alarms about Mylar balloons, which are metallic and can cause dangerous electrical surges or outages when they contact power lines or transformers. A high-profile outage occurred in New Orleans in August 2024, when a Mylar balloon caused a power flicker at a water treatment plant, leading to a boil water advisory for nearly 370,000 residents.
Thanks for your attention.
