STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Almost everybody says they'd favor using more renewable energy. Experts quickly add that it's neither cheap nor quick to do that. But that has not deterred the city of San Diego. It has promised to use nothing but power from renewable sources - someday. Getting there may take decades, not to mention political battles. Here's Claire Trageser of member station KPBS.
CLAIRE TRAGESER, BYLINE: An industrial hum surrounds the parking lots of Kyocera, a San Diego solar panel manufacturer. But that's not what has caught the attention of an environmentalist Nicole Capretz. Instead, she stops to gaze at the structures overhead.
NICOLE CAPRETZ: They look like metal trees but with solar on top.
TRAGESER: These are solar trees which suspend solar panels over parking spaces. Their collected electricity runs into Kyocera's adjacent offices.
CAPRETZ: We don't necessarily have to go out into open space miles away and ship energy into San Diego. We can build it right here and use it right here. And that's where we want the future to be.
TRAGESER: Generating solar power is just one rung on a ladder San Diego will have to climb to reach 100 percent renewable energy by 2035. Now is the time in stories like these where you might expect to hear from business groups opposing such an environmentally ambitious plan. But that isn't going to happen.
SEAN KARAFIN: A thriving business environment is one in which the quality of life is high so that we can attract the best and brightest talent from around the nation and around the world.
TRAGESER: Sean Karafin is with the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. So everybody's on board now, but there could be trouble brewing on the horizon. The problem is whether to set up an alternative energy program that would put the city in charge of buying electricity instead of the power company. It's called community choice aggregation.
TY TOSDAL: Imagine if you only had a single option for wireless service.
TRAGESER: Ty Tosdal is an energy regulation lawyer.
TOSDAL: It wouldn't present any kind of competitive pressure on the companies to bring their prices down.
TRAGESER: Right now, there's only one place residents can get power - San Diego Gas and Electric. The utility has a lot of influence. It donates to and lobbies San Diego's elected officials and has a strong voice at the Chamber of Commerce. So as the city decides whether to implement community choice, political leaders could take sides. Tosdal says utility have sway in many cities across the country.
TOSDAL: If the city of San Diego started a community energy program, that would embolden other cities and communities who are inclined to start community energy programs.
TRAGESER: San Diego's power company wrote in a statement it will reach 50 percent renewable in 15 years. But that's only half the city's goal. Back in the solar tree-filled parking lot, environmentalist Nicole Capretz says community choice is the only way to go 100 percent renewable.
CAPRETZ: If we do break away from our utility, then we can install the solar locally in our parking lots and our rooftops.
TRAGESER: And that's a model that can scale nationally.
CAPRETZ: We want the mayors of New York, of Boston, of Chicago, of Phoenix, Ariz. to kind of look around and say, oh, well, I want to be in the lead here; I don't want to let San Diego take the mantle.
TRAGESER: Capretz is also hoping her city shows that taking control of its energy is the way to reach that goal. For NPR News, I'm Claire Trageser in San Diego.