Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

California Today

San Diego’s Power Move: City Takes on Utility Over Green Energy

More than 160 cities, towns and counties in California currently take part in programs that offer alternatives to an investor-owned utility.Credit...Frederic J. Brown/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Good morning.

(Want to get California Today by email? Here’s the sign-up.)

San Diego is going into the utility business.

After a long and often contentious debate, Mayor Kevin Faulconer is set to announce on Thursday that the city will create an alternative to the area’s investor-owned utility, San Diego Gas and Electric Company. The city says the government-run program will increase competition, lower electricity rates by as much as 5 percent and ensure that the city reaches its goal of 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2035, 10 years ahead of the state’s mandate.

“We’re giving our customers the choice, and that choice is to go with greener energy,” Mr. Faulconer said in an interview. “It keeps San Diego on the cutting edge of environmental protection.”

The move makes San Diego the largest city in the state to embrace a program in which residents essentially band together to buy power in bulk. More than 160 cities, towns and counties in California currently take part in similar programs, which began two decades ago in Cape Cod and spread to other locations in Massachusetts, New York and Illinois.

San Diego’s program is expected to be in place by 2022, and utility customers will be automatically enrolled in it, though they can also choose to stay with SDG & E.

A group calling itself the Clear the Air Coalition, which includes leaders of organizations funded by Sempra Energy, the parent company of SDG & E, argued against the proposal, saying it would increase rates and jeopardize the city’s finances without making a significant difference in carbon-free energy.

“We just don’t see a real strong need,” said Tony Manolatos, a spokesman for the coalition.

But the city said it believed the government-run entity was the only way to achieve its carbon-free electricity goals, a view held by others that have adopted the approach.

One such program, the Redwood Coast Energy Authority in Northern California, hopes to become the first on the West Coast to get power from an offshore wind farm.

The Interior Department last week took the first steps toward leasing waters off California for floating wind turbines. San Diego’s coastal winds aren’t suitable for offshore turbines, but the city plans to tap solar arrays, land-based wind farms and geothermal power to meet its goals.

Image

This is the fourth in a series of 10 California-themed crossword puzzles, written by the veteran Times crossword constructor and San Diego resident Bruce Haight.

In today’s puzzle, we’ll be kicking back and enjoying some different California wines. They’re paired with a little bit of food in the middle Across answer. And if you’re a fan of the Golden Bears, you might try starting at 8-Down.

If you like what you’re solving, check out our daily Mini crossword puzzle, or take your puzzles on the go with the New York Times Crossword app.

(Please note: We regularly highlight articles on news sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.)

Image
A bomb squad from the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department inspected suspicious packages that were left outside a building downtown.Credit...John Gibbins/The San Diego Union-Tribune, via Associated Press

Pipe bombs have been sent to prominent Democrats across the country, including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Representative Maxine Waters, and to CNN’s offices in New York. Another of the explosives-containing envelopes was found Thursday morning in New York, addressed to the actor Robert De Niro. [The New York Times]

• President Trump denounced the scares and called for unity. “Do you see how nice I’m behaving?” he said at a rally. He then blamed the news media. [The New York Times]

• Confusion and false alarms spread in New York and across California, where suspicious packages in El Segundo, San Diego and Fresno resulted in the evacuations of some news media outlets. [The New York Times]

• A neo-Nazi gang leader from Huntington Beach was arrested by the F.B.I. after he fled the country this month. [The New York Times]

• Democrats are banking on Mr. Trump’s unpopularity in Southern California to flip at least six House seats. [The Atlantic]

• The blue wave in Orange County depends on two Democrats: Gil Cisneros and Harley Rouda. Both are former Republicans. [The Los Angeles Times]

• Senator Kamala Harris’s first trip to Iowa as a potential presidential candidate had an air of celebrity that has been amplified by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings. [Buzzfeed News]

• “I was indoctrinated into a Democratic Party cult from a very early age,” the documentary filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi said. “But I know that’s not the only America, and we need to understand the other side.” And so Representative Nancy Pelosi’s youngest daughter headed to Trump country. [The New York Times]

Image
Cody Bellinger caught a fly ball hit by Ian Kinsler in the sixth inning of Game 2 of the World Series.Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

• The Red Sox are halfway to a World Series title after beating the Dodgers, 4-2, in Game 2 at Fenway Park. [The New York Times]

Tesla reported its first quarterly profit in two years — and its biggest ever — thanks to a surge in Model 3 sales. [The New York Times]

• A fire at a construction site in Oakland this week follows a series of arsons at housing projects throughout the East Bay. [SFGate]

• California managed to meet its climate goals four years early, but the accomplishment is overshadowed by the fact that transportation emissions have gone up. “There is a persistent belief, among both state officials and the public, that clean cars and clean fuels alone can achieve California’s climate goals, but this is fundamentally untrue,” an expert said. [Curbed]

• San Francisco is experiencing a full-blown homelessness crisis, writes Marc Benioff, the chief executive of Salesforce, who urged companies to support Proposition C. [The New York Times | Op-Ed]

Image
The strawberry salad at Pacific Standard Time. The chef, Erling Wu-Bower, found the strawberries at a farmers’ market in Santa Monica.Credit...Brian Willette

• Looking for California cuisine in the Midwest? Pacific Standard Time brings farm-fresh ingredients and the idea of gathering to Chicago. [The New York Times]

Image
Fall foliage near Healdsburg earlier this month.Credit...George Rose/Getty Images

This year, the best places to bask in autumnal joy may be on the West Coast.

It’s been a disappointing fall foliage season on the East Coast, where unusually warm and damp weather has turned leaves straight from green to brown.

But the San Bernardino Mountains have hit peak color, according to NBC Los Angeles, and a vibrant display of orange and yellow has transformed the Eastern Sierra.

“California’s 2018 autumn will be remembered as one of the most unbelievably beautiful and long-lasting, ever,” the blog California Fall Color declared.

As its tagline points out: “Dude, autumn happens here, too.”

California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

A correction was made on 
Oct. 25, 2018

An earlier version of this article misstated the group that funded the Clean the Air Coalition. It is Sempra Energy, the parent company of SDG & E, not SDG & E itself.

How we handle corrections

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT