Turns out San Diego isn’t quite as green as it seems.
In recent years, San Diego voters and elected officials set lofty goals to make the city an environmental leader.
Then everyone realized what those goals would cost. This year, amid a massive budget crunch, San Diego’s grand promises of a greener future took a back seat to fiscal reality.
Our environment reporter, MacKenzie Elmer, revisited four major recent climate projects for our latest What We Learned This Year story. She found stalled progress or even backsliding in all four of them. Here’s a rundown:
Recycling sewage into drinking water. Several years ago, the city launched a $5 billion project to turn wastewater into potable water. It sounded like a great way to reduce sewage effluent into the ocean and wean the city from Colorado River water.
Now, as city leaders confront the project’s full cost, they are debating dialing it back.
Keeping food waste out of landfills. City voters three years ago voted to allow the city to charge for trash pickup. In 2025, the City Council approved a trash fee.
The city needed the money because a new state mandate requiring the city to develop a residential composting system to reduce methane-producing food waste in landfills.
This year, the bill came due. Now, amid a lawsuit, the future of the trash fee is uncertain.
Emissions-free buses. The North County Transit District recently began switching part of its bus fleet to hydrogen power to comply with a state mandate to reduce fossil fuels in public transit.
Now, as the expensive reality of that switch becomes apparent – including the paradoxical need to generate lots of emissions trucking the hydrogen fuel to San Diego County – the district is figuring out what to do next.
Climate Action Plan. Remember Mayor Todd Gloria’s Climate Action Plan? The 2022 plan committed the city to becoming net zero emissions by 2035.
This year, the mayor cut back. He consolidated the department overseeing the plan, replaced its leader and tried to pull $8.5 million from a climate equity program.
It’s a good bet 2026 won’t be known as San Diego’s Year of the Environment.
What We Learned This Year: Our reporters are looking back at some of the biggest stories in 2025. We’ll recap what we learned here.
20 Years of Impact: The Vaccine Exemption Doctor
Six years ago, our Will Huntsberry made a startling discovery. A single doctor was approving a third of all vaccine exemptions in the San Diego Unified School District.
Dr. Tara Zandvliet had carved out a niche for herself as a go-to doctor for parents seeking to avoid vaccinating their children.
Zandvliet authorized exemptions for all kinds of reasons, even ones medical experts said were not backed up by rigorous science.
Zandvliet said she knew her views weren’t mainstream. But, as Huntsberry reported, she “believed the science would catch up with her one day.”
Instead, it was authorities who caught up with Zandvliet and a widening number of doctors who, like her, flouted established vaccine science.
State lawmakers passed a bill that sought to ensure doctors couldn’t endanger schoolchildren by granting unwarranted vaccine exemptions.
The state medical board reined in Zandvliet’s ability to grant exemptions and charged more than two dozen other doctors with similar practices.
Because vaccines are such a hot-button issue, Huntsberry’s story gained international attention.
In Other News
Opponents of Harmony Grove, a 450-unit housing development proposed between Escondido and San Marcos, filed a second lawsuit last week seeking to halt the project. The suit, which claims county officials did not adequately assess wildfire risk, follows an earlier suit filed by the Sierra Club. (Union-Tribune)
It’s going to be a wet holiday season. An atmospheric river storm could bring several inches of rain to the county over the weekend. (NBC7 San Diego)
Trustees of the South Bay Union School District last week named two more schools slated for closure amid district budget difficulties. The district’s teachers’ union, along with parents, say they oppose the move. (KPBS)
A massive 458-unit apartment complex is coming to San Marcos next year. The complex is part of a larger $1 billion development that includes student housing, retail, a hospital and more. (Union-Tribune)
Editor’s note: We are taking a few days off to spend time with our families. We’ll be back on Friday with a Morning Report. Happy Holidays.
The Morning Report was written by Jim Hinch. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.