Just a quick follow up to yesterday’s post about the Ban the Bag rally at City Hall; the gathering appears to have worked.

When greeted on the steps of City Hall by dozens of supporters of the ban, including leaders of groups like Portland’s chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and Willamette Riverkeepers, a couple of Bag Monsters, and even Bigfoot himself, Mayor Sam Adams, pledged that Portland would be a place where plastic, single-use bags are banned.

The mayor’s statement, isn’t all that shocking; Adams has been tinkering with the idea of charging a fee on plastic bags since 2008, but had gotten cold feet about the tax-like measure in the face of the Great Recession.

But now with the never-ending Gulf oil leak dominating headlines (Ban the Bag supporters point out that millions barrels of oil a year are used in the making of countless plastic bags each year) Hizzoner is ready to push forward on the idea without delay, stating that the council would have a draft ordinance to deal with the bags done by Friday.

Such a move puts Portland out in front of state lawmakers who are working on introducing a bag-banning measure for the 2011 legislative session. The statewide ban, if successful, wouldn’t take place until 2012.

In case you missed it, here’s the report on the rally (complete with major fist-pumps from Bigfoot) that ran on KGW yesterday.