Our top story on KPBS Midday Edition, a plan to buy carbon credits offset pollution is not good enough for the San Diego Sierra Club. They and several other environmental organizations are suing San Diego County over its new climate action plan. The new plan was developed because the Sierra Club sued over the county's previous climate action plan and forced supervisors back to the drawing board. Doing -- joining me is Eric Anderson. What exactly does the County action plan due and what are their goals how would you achieve them? >> What the County is been charged to do by the state of California is to come up with a plan that would help reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that are produced in the County's footprint. And unincorporated areas of the county. They were charged by the state to do this. They did one plan in 2012 which was not very well received we could talk about that in a moment. This is their second attempt of trying to figure out a definitive way to make sure they are reducing the impact of global warming gases on the local economy. >>> What happened to the first plan? The first plan was to are lynched by the Sierra Club again. They thought the first one was not specific enough and had no concrete plans to going to do that. They questioned whether not a method guideline with California quality known as CEQA. Thick challenged it in court and the court agreed with him. Their challenge was upheld. The County was compelled to go back and try again. >>> Can you tell us what the changes are that the County added to the second plan in order to respond to the Sierra Club's lawsuit? >> The first plan was criticized for not being specific about where greenhouse gases work going to be generated. There is a lot more detail than the second plan that is being offered. The Sierra Club has problems with the couple of things. When I spoke with George cursor, he said they had problems with two basic issues. One is this idea of carbon credits. What the County is done, the approach they have taken is to say that look if we have any new development that is going to impact greenhouse gas emissions in other words generate more greenhouse gas, we don't necessarily have to have the mitigation here in the County of San Diego. The developer could, for example, by mitigation credits carbon credits is what they are called in a neighboring county, country, or halfway around the world. Just as long as that overall greenhouse gases are reduced even though it may not be right here in San Diego. The Sierra Club says if you're going to add to the greenhouse gas, that mitigation should come here in the county. They don't think the carbon credit plan is really easy to check up on. I don't think that they are convinced of its effectiveness as a long-term strategy. The other thing the Sierra Club was worried about was the fact that the new climate action plan suggests that the general plan that the County debated for many years will not necessarily need to be followed moving forward. In other words developers can propose a development that is outside the general plan guidelines that might increase the number of vehicle miles traveled. Of course since 45% of all greenhouse gases come from automobiles, if you increase the number of miles people have the drive to get back and forth to work to home, you are increasing the greenhouse gas emissions. They say that this plan allows for this pocket development and far-reaching areas and would put more cars on the road. >>> Who else is part of the lawsuit? >> It is not just the Sierra Club. They are working with other environmental organizations, the Center for biological diversity, and a couple of others who are also concerned about lemon action plans not only here in San Diego County but around California and the rest of the nation. >>> This is happening against the backdrop of San Diego's crucial need of more housing. Is at the county's argument for the new development? >> It is not a plan for development. That is what the general plan does. The concern that the Sierra Club had is creating an avenue that allows for these developments to occur. The one thing the Sierra Club officials stressed when they talk about this is they said look the best way to go about creating the housing that the region needs and reducing the carbon footprint or the greenhouse gas emissions is to make sure that you do thing smart. You build housing and already urbanized areas. You build housing that is within close proximity of transit options or transit ability so that people don't have to rely on their cars to get back-and-forth. You create the kind of infrastructure that allows people to either leave behind their fossil fuel vehicles or to buy much cleaner electric vehicles and put those on the road. I think that while both of those groups the county and the critics kind of see the same endpoint, they see how much greenhouse gas we will generate in the future, they see different pathways to get there. >>> Did supervisors in any way anticipate that this new plan could end up in court ? >> That is a little funny. That was a major part of the discussion in public when supervisors were considering this plan. They wanted to make sure that what they put forth this time had the muster to stand up to any challenges in court. That was a significant part of the discussion, the public discussion as they were considering adopting this plan. They gave it some thought. They seem to be fairly confident at least based on those public discussions that they are going to prevail from the shallots. Of course we will have to wait and see exactly what happens once both sides are argued in the court of law. >>> I've been speaking with KPBS environment reporter Eric Anderson , Eric, thank you. >> Thank you.
The San Diego Sierra Club is back in court challenging San Diego County’s latest Climate Action Plan.
The local environmental organization is filing two lawsuits challenging the latest iteration of San Diego County’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Sierra Club officials say the plan calls for a 77 percent reduction in emissions by 2050. But those goals are achieved largely through the purchase of carbon credits, not actual reductions in San Diego County.
Critics also argue the plan allows for development outside the guidelines set forth in the county’s master plan. The Sierra Club wants the county to do a better job.
"They have essentially an indefensible product that they’re putting forth. A brand new plan or scheme to enable growth to occur outside of the boundaries of the approved general plan," said George Courser, Sierra Club San Diego chapter steering committee member.
The Sierra Club has already tangled with the county in court forcing officials to redraw their first attempt at a climate action plan.
Courser said his club’s members would much rather be focusing on enjoying the outdoors.
“But we can’t do that when the county is going to allow our open space to be developed, our areas that we thought were protected to be turned into small cities, and to do so without the protections of the general plan,” Courser said.
The club felt obliged to take legal action to protect the region’s natural resources.
County officials declined a chance to comment, saying they don’t discuss pending litigation.
