City Council Dec. 15 voted 8-0 to pass one of the nation’s most ambitious Climate Action Plans, whose ultimate goal is to get the city to 100 percent clean energy use by 2035 through transit, walking and biking. Council member Scott Sherman was absent.
Ninety-three speakers spoke in favor of the program, and two said they were opposed.
Calling it a “momentous occasion,” Mayor Kevin Faulconer introduced the proposal, pointing out it enjoys such widespread support because “we know San Diego is a city that innovates.” Noting San Diego is a city where “our environment is absolutely essential to our quality of life,” Faulconer said the measure’s passage will “help our community thrive and also create the green jobs of tomorrow.” Faulconer added that the plan will ensure that San Diego “stays on track to significantly reduce greenhouse gases. “We have the ability to make San Diego the green energy and solar capital of the world,” Faulconer said, adding that “We will increase the use of clean energy with a goal of using 100 percent renewable energy.” The mayor added that goal will be accomplished through efficient and smart use of resources, which will do things such as reduce landfill waste and convert methane produced in waste facilities into electricity. The mayor characterized the plan as a “great first step” in a long-term effort to achieve quantifiable sustainability goals, like making city vehicles 50 percent electric by 2020 and 90 percent electric by 2035.
Extolling the plan’s virtues, Faulconer said it “strikes a sensible balance between protecting our environment and growing our economy.” He added San Diego can “support clean technology, renewable energy and economic growth as well as be a leader in innovation and sustainability. Let’s use this to preserve our children’s future and pass along a San Diego that is clean and full of more opportunity.”
Nicole Capretz, executive director of the watchdog Climate Action Campaign, described the plan’s passage as a “down payment on our future.” Arguing that climate change is “the greatest threat to our survival and the survival of future generations,” Capretz said the Council-approved action to endorse the plan “sets a legacy for everybody here today.” The plan’s approval, Capretz said, “gives us control of our energy and water destiny.” She added its implementation will make San Diego the largest city to endorse a plan to get to 100 percent clean energy. She added the plan is “measurable, enforceable and binding. “The 100 percent goal is a mandate, not a dream, not a wish or a legal aspiration, but a legal commitment,” Capretz concluded.