The California Legislature spent this week making its first big push to get bills out of their respective fiscal committees before the May 13th deadline. A flurry of environmental bills was heard in both policy and fiscal committees. Here is how a few of the priority environmental bills fared with the looming deadline quickly approaching.

The following bills passed out of committee and are on the way to their respective floor:

AB 320 (Hill) – Makes clarifying amendments to CEQA to ensure that all parties with a direct interest in a case brought pursuant the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) are aware of the pending litigation and parties with no direct link to the case are not unnecessarily dragged into a lawsuit. (PCL SPONSORED)

AB 376 (Fong) – This bill would make it unlawful for any person to possess, sell, offer for sale, trade, or distribute a shark fin. This is a contentious bill as many in the Asian community feel the banning of one of their traditional banquet dishes is unfair.

SB 568 (Lowenthal) – Would prohibit a food vendor, on and after January 1, 2014, from dispensing prepared food to a customer in polystyrene foam (Styrofoam) food container. The bill would provide that a food vendor that is a school district is not required to comply with the bill’s requirements until July 1, 2015.

This bill failed passage and is up for reconsideration at the author’s request:

SB 580 (Wolk) – Mandates that any land acquired for the state park system, through public funds or gifts cannot be disposed of or used for other purposes deemed incompatible with park purposes without the substitution of other land.

Next week will be a big week for the Legislature. All remaining bills will be heard by their fiscal committees. Stay tuned for the full update in next week’s Insider.