Hundreds of bills were passed and hundreds died in the 2008 legislative session. There are even a few still in limbo because no one really knew when midnight was on Wednesday.

One thing that is agreed is that the impact of the session won't be truly known for weeks, or in the case of immigration, perhaps years.

Immigration

For a month and a half, Utahns pleaded with, demanded of and even threatened lawmakers to finally do something about illegal immigration.

Sweeping reform was passed, but in the last minutes of the 2008 legislative session a key piece of the puzzle was left out over "a game of chicken" between the House and Senate, and now leaders of both are scrambling to fix it after the fact.

An immigration task force proposed by Sen. Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City, died after the House took offense at a move in the Senate to get some money for a separate education task force. Instead of fixing the problem, they let task forces for immigration and education die on the board.

"I guess we got caught up in a game of chicken," Jenkins said.

The immigration task force was supposed to bridge the next 18 months when Senate Bill 81 goes into effect, toughening up enforcement, employment requirements, ID theft, liquor licenses and more. That bill was delayed explicitly to await the task force results.

States like Oklahoma and Arizona have faced unforeseen economic impacts and lawsuits after passing strict laws against illegal immigration.

Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said on Friday that he's working with Speaker of the House Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, to move some money into additional interim committees. That doesn't make Jenkins any happier.

"If they can just do it, then why didn't they just let it pass?" he said. "Now that it's turned into a political football I'm not sure I care."

Alcohol

Removing malt flavored beverages, known as "alcopops" from convenience stores was not just an attempt to stop underage drinking, said Sen. Curtis Bramble R-Provo.

Distilled spirits, by state law, must be sold in liquor stores. Only beer can be sold in convenience and grocery stores, but these fruity drinks were classified as malt flavored beverages, and were sold alongside beer.

Some legislators were concerned that by removing the alcopops from privately owned businesses the state would be adding revenue to their own pockets instead of the citizens. The Smiths supermarket stores throughout the state combined might lose up to one million dollars in revenue said Tom Guinney, who owns and operates private clubs and restaurants in Utah. Albertsons stores could lose around $800,000.

"They'd probably lose more if they stopped selling radishes and green onions," Guinney said.

 Moving the drinks to state liquor stores will keep the number of drinks consumed down just based on the sheer fact that there have been several hundreds of convenience stores, and a far more limited number of state liquor stores, Bramble said.

"Just by pure numbers, we are reducing the availability of these products to get into the hands of teens, even if the drinks are still bought by their parents," Bramble said.

The alcopops have been proven to be targeted at teens and young women primarily, Guinney said.

Governor Jon Huntsman only agreed to support the alcopop bill when the issue of poured drinks and sidecars were addressed.

The second part of the bill addresses the amount of alcohol that could be served as a part of a mixed drink. With the passage of this legislation, the amount has been taken down from a possible three and three-fourths ounce to a standard two and one-half ounce.

"Now it will be consistent to what bartenders are used to across the country," Bramble said.

Energy

Legislators decided that requiring mandates was not best for Utah's renewable energy development.

"Twenty-five by 25 is a nice jingle, but there is no rational that says it's where we should be," said Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo. "Why should we limit companies to only 25 percent if they could get more? Or if they could only get 15 percent, they shouldn't be forced to be at 25 if there's no economic, scientific or technological basis to be there."

Although there is no required amount of renewable development, the state has set a target of getting 20-percent of its energy from a renewable source by the year 2025. Power companies will be required to report to the Legislature every five years concerning their progress in developments.

Bramble said that by setting targets instead of mandates, the market will open up and renewable developers will have a chance to be competitive in producing energy.

The bill was created as a compromise of environmental groups and power providers from across the state.

Bramble said that although all groups didn't particularly support the bill, none specifically opposed it.

"I told them they could either sit at the table and help us get a bill that everyone could live with, or they wouldn't get anything," Bramble said.

Sen. Mike Dmitrich, D-Price, was the co-sponsor of the bill. Bramble said that by having both the majority leader and minority leader sponsoring the bill, everyone could see just how important it was.

Although Bramble wasn't aware of any particular renewable energy developer in Utah County, the bill does provide tax exemptions of materials that could be used in construction for developments.

Utah will focus primarily on the development of wind, geothermal and solar energies, to use the existing resources of the state.

The city of Orem provides power produced by Rocky Mountain Power, and the city of Provo gets power from other contractors.

Time

For those wondering about the time discrepancy of the last bills passed on Wednesday night, don't fret.

Rick Cantrell, the Chief Deputy, said that the problem had occurred because the system's internal clock was approximately three minutes and nine seconds faster than the clerk's official clock.

The bills in question are registered as laws now, said Majority Leader Sen. Curtis Bramble R-Provo.