It’s all fun and games until the power line blows up. Foil balloons commonly festooned at celebratory events such as birthdays and graduations inadvertently cause thousands of power outages.

The New Orleans City Council on Thursday voted to ban foil balloon releases in an effort to curb electrical outages that have been linked to rogue balloons hitting power lines. The ordinance ...

The city council passed an ordinance last month banning the release of Mylar balloons and all those coated in metal or other "conductive material." It doesn't prohibit buying the balloons.