A Greener San Diego: 2025 Edition

In October, Wallethub named San Diego the Greenest City in America, for the third year in a row; Wallethub crunches a lot of numbers to get their index, and we at Bluedot are proud that America’s Finest City ranks highly (even as we are skeptical of such rankings). But is San Diego continuing to get better? Let’s take a look at the news since last Earth Day, as we did last year.

Climate and Energy

• Following the City of San Diego’s Climate Action Plan (approved in August 2022, and revised in February 2024), the County approved their CAP in September. The plan includes dozens of actions from better building codes to improved transportation options, preserving farmland to reducing water use. The goal is net-zero by 2045, a decade after the City. (Full disclosure: I was part of the Policy & Innovation Center team that was paid to analyze the costs and benefits of the plan.)
• The City also updated its General Plan in August with Blueprint SD, a series of modest changes that the City hopes will make San Diego denser, greener, and more equitable. The plan could help with San Diego’s housing crisis, which also impacts the environment.
• Electricity prices in San Diego, and across California, continue to rise. The hikes are a combination of several factors, but stem primarily from long-delayed investments in the electricity grid to both improve capacity and protect from wildfires. Electric utilities also blame rooftop solar users, saying they are subsidized by non-solar users; but the solar industry strongly disputes this, pointing out that the utilities and the Public Utilities Commission have spent wildly on expensive infrastructure projects.
• Battery storage is important to store renewable energy, particularly solar power, which is abundant in the daytime and nonexistent at night. The facilities help keep the grid reliable and reduce peak demand, and can reduce use of dirty and expensive “peaker” plants fueled by natural gas. A battery facility big enough to power 300,000 homes for four hours is being built in Poway. But residents and lawmakers are jittery about the facilities, in the wake of some high-profile fires with lithium-ion batteries (none of which, we should note, spread offsite or injured anyone).
• New, safer battery storage technologies are being deployed at San Diego military bases to help ensure grid resiliency and reliability.
• A lithium production facility near the Salton Sea got the go-ahead after a lawsuit from local environmental groups was tossed. While the facility will use the cleanest method to produce a mineral essential for the clean energy transition, locals were still concerned, highlighting the tradeoffs inherent in environmental issues.

Air

• Asbestos is a nasty airborne carcinogen, and City buildings, like many places, are still contaminated. Trees help clean the air, so San Diego agreed to pay $4.7 million to plant trees in disadvantaged neighborhoods, as part of an agreement with the county Air Pollution Control District over asbestos violations.
• People in the South Bay endured months of horrid odors from sewage in the Tijuana River. A new monitoring system has been set up in affected communities, though it still isn’t clear at what level the stink (from hydrogen sulfide) goes from nuisance to health hazard.

Water

• The sewage crisis in the Tijuana River dominated local water news this year. Plants on both sides of the border are being repaired at great expense, but the process is going to take years. EPA declined to declare the river a Superfund site, as the situation doesn’t really meet the criteria for the law that deals mostly with industrial toxic waste. South Bay beaches continue to be frequently closed when bacteria counts spike.
• Rampant “informal” development on steep hillsides in northern Tijuana contributes trash and sediment downstream that clog sewage treatment facilities and make the problems worse. As part of the Tijuana River clean-up, a new $4.7 million trash boom was installed to trap trash and sediment from south of the border for at least two years. It’s one of three currently in use in the Tijuana River Valley.
• While Northern California stayed out of drought for a third year, according to the federal Drought Monitor, San Diego and the rest of SoCal had less than half of our normal rain this winter, placing about a quarter of the Golden State in “severe” drought or worse.
• Water rates around the county are spiking, as utilities both need to maintain water infrastructure in the face of declining use, and expand and diversify their water supplies in the face of climate change.
• The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) and Caltrans celebrated completion of an $87-million project to restore San Dieguito Lagoon. The project created new wetlands from old tomato fields and will improve the ecological function of the marshes. SANDAG is also working to restore Batiquitos lagoon. Both projects are mitigation for transportation projects.
• The 100-year-old Lake Hodges Dam will be replaced after repair work revealed it is structurally unsound. Water levels at the lake have been extremely low, and will remain so until the new dam is up years from now.
• The Port of San Diego is battling invasive seaweed. 

Waste

• San Diego’s organic waste program is working, diverting compostable material from the landfill and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Planning

• Proposed housing developments in San Diego’s undeveloped areas continued to have a rough go due to rising wildfire concerns. While the county desperately needs housing, environmental concerns, primarily fire danger, are forcing builders to rethink plans.
• On the heels of devastating fires in Los Angeles neighborhoods, the state fire marshal released new maps designating more urban areas in San Diego (and statewide) as “very high” risk for wildfire. This means new housing in these areas will have to meet stricter requirements for fire resistance.
• Plans to redevelop the South Shores portion of Mission Bay Park into recreational amenities were put on hold temporarily while City officials try to figure out how to deal with toxic wastes from when the area was used as a landfill in the 1950s. The City has already passed plans to revamp De Anza Cove and Fiesta Island.
• San Diego City officials modestly scaled back 2-year-old requirements that prohibited use of natural gas in City-owned buildings. Officials said that while the policy was generally working well, the requirements were causing unanticipated costs for specific needed projects.

Transportation

• After the failure of two sales tax measures in November that would have raised money for public transit and other priorities, SANDAG, Metropolitan Transit System (MTS), North County Transit District (NCTD), and City officials will have to re-evaluate how to fund desperately needed transportation fixes.
• The Port of San Diego controls a lot of local waterfront, and communities near the Port can suffer the consequences, especially of emissions from diesel trucks. The Port is committed to spending millions more to reduce these emissions. It includes electrification projects, including electric cranes, and an electric tugboat.
• Shockingly, unleaded fuel for small aircraft only recently became available, and the City (after some foot-dragging) is now offering it at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport, one of the busiest small-plane airports in the country. Lead is a potent neurotoxin and there is no safe level of exposure. Airborne lead concentrations in the U.S. and worldwide have plunged since the phaseout of leaded gasoline, and lead exposures globally continue to nosedive.
• A state-run program offering vouchers to help people buy e-bikes ended after an hour in December when all 1,500 vouchers were snapped up — 1,500 vouchers for a state of almost 40 million people.

Wildlife

• Sea World released a couple of rehabbed sea lions at Camp Pendleton in February. The female sea lions were rescued with treatable health conditions and are part of the healthy California population. Camp Pendleton takes pains to protect endangered species on the base, which features miles of relatively untouched habitat. 
• The San Diego Humane Society released three mountain lions after rehabilitation in the last year. The Humane Society’s Project Wildlife helps about 10,000 animals and birds from over 300 species every year.
• While not exactly wild, giant pandas made a triumphant return to the San Diego Zoo in August, a bright spot in otherwise gloomy U.S.-China relations.
• And a pair of male flamingos at the Safari Park have hatched an egg and are raising a flamingo chick. Zookeepers gave the pair a real egg after watching how well they cared for a fake egg given to them to stop the jealous would-be dads from interfering with other nests.

It’s been another year of grand plans, modest achievements, and stubborn realities. But we’re still proud to live in a San Diego that’s envisioning a greener future.