Morning Report: San Diego’s Climate Plan Calls for Replacing Gas Stoves

The mere suggestion of getting rid of gas-powered stoves at the federal level caused political turmoil in Congress last week, after a new study blamed methane or natural gas for 13 percent of childhood asthma.

Gas used to cook food or heat homes produces pollution both indoors and out, reads the city of San Diego’s Climate Action Plan which aims to replace the gas with electricity by 2035 in most buildings. That likely means swapping-out gas stoves with electric-powered induction stoves, as noted in the plan.

Decarbonizing buildings is how San Diego plans to cut half of its emissions under an update to that plan signed by Mayor Todd Gloria. But how the city will achieve this is not yet spelled out in policy.

Rate of Newly Homeless San Diegans Continues to Outpace Housing Efforts

New countywide data reveals dozens more San Diegans fell into homelessness in December than the number who moved into housing.

The Regional Task Force on Homelessness reports that 994 people accessed homeless services for the first time last month while 759 exited homelessness. December marked the ninth month in a row that the number of people becoming homeless for the first time outpaced the number of people moving off the street.

The latest monthly data from the Task Force also showed that a majority of formerly unhoused people who moved into homes last month secured their own units without ongoing aid, a trend that our Lisa Halverstadt wrote about earlier this week.

In Other News

As a candidate, Sheriff Kelly Martinez pledged to publicly release internal reviews of in-custody deaths. Now she’s instead decided to share summaries of review board findings. (Union-Tribune)
The Housing Commission is set to cover more than $1 million in attorneys’ fees to end a lawsuit accusing the agency of increasing racial segregation and preventing low-income people from using housing vouchers in higher-income areas. (CBS 8)
Roughly 500,000 gallons of sewage spilled into the ocean at various points along San Diego’s coast due to a pump station malfunction, San Diego County officials said. (NBC 7)
Dramatic video taken by NBC 7 shows multiple people being rescued from recent floodwaters.
CBS meteorologist Shawn Styles took a crack at answering the question of whether all this rain might be able to stop California’s drought. The answer: TBD. When it rains heavily in California, much of the rain runs off into the Pacific Ocean – that doesn’t help. However, Styles wrote, the snowpack is off to one of its best starts in 40 years – and that does have the potential to alleviate drought conditions. (CBS 8)
President Biden will visit the Central Coast on Thursday to visit areas that have been damaged by extreme flooding. (CBS 8)
San Diego’s forecast for today is looking a little brighter. No rain expected Wednesday, but light showers Thursday, forecasters predicted. (Union-Tribune)