Environment

USD Report Lays Out Options To Reduce Greenhouse Gases

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published October 29, 2009 at 1:48 PM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

A new report analyzes how San Diego could reduce green house gasses to 1990 levels by 2020. Local planning agencies must come up with a strategy in the next two years to meet the state wide goal.

State and federal policy will have the biggest impact on reducing carbon emissions. But the report, from the Energy Policy Initiatives Center at USD, shows between 10 percent and 30 percent of the reductions must come from changes made at the local level.

Scott Anders of EPIC says more public transit is one of the most cost effective ways to meet the goals, but ironically the state has cut funding for public transport.

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He says their study found that incentives to put more electric vehicles on the road would be another effective strategy. “For example, getting to 60 percent of all vehicles being electric, that would be more than we need for the entire transportation sector," he says. "But getting to 60 percent, that’s a huge number.”

Anders says this kind of shift will be necessary if San Diego and California are to meet the even more ambitious goal set for 2050.

The report also found insulating and retrofitting older buildings is a more cost effective way to reduce carbon emissions than putting solar panels on every new building.

“This means increasing insulation in your home,” he says. “Potentially replacing windows, and replacing your lighting with more efficient lighting. Between homes and businesses, there is an enormous potential of greenhouse gas reductions out there.”

Anders says retrofitting buildings built before 1980 is particularly effective.

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.