Law360, New York (February 14, 2013, 6:27 PM ET) -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposal to ban Styrofoam in New York City struck a positive chord with Democrats in Albany and environmentalists on Thursday but experts say city and state-level action will encounter resistance from chemical and packaging makers who helped defeat a California ban last year.

The mayor, famous for a raft of consumer-protection initiatives including a trans-fat ban, public calorie counts and curbs on public smoking and the size of sugary drinks, floated his latest brainchild at his final State of the City address before a raucous crowd at Brooklyn's Barclays Center.

California must beef up oversight of oil and gas exploration in the state as hydraulic fracturing expands, several people told a state Senate panel yesterday.

More information is needed about where companies are "fracking," what chemicals they're using and how the work affects water supplies, said some who testified at a joint hearing of the Senate's Environmental Quality Committee and the Committee on Natural Resources and Water.

“Make the distinction between fracking for oil and fracking for gas. The oil industry is running around saying, those are the problems you have with gas development in the east, but the regulations that you put into place called 'fracking' shouldn't matter that the technology changes, you don't know that they may be fracking for gas in ten years around here. The expansion of fracking brings with it new challenges.” Senator Bill Monning

This article is based on a few excerpts from the QandA period in the last 111 minutes of the February 12th, 2013 hearing. Many thanks and appreciation are due Senator Fran Pavley for convening the hearing. And comments remain open until February 19th.