April 21, 2026

The Chamber policy team has been busy with several local advocacy efforts at the City of San Diego, County, and Air Pollution Control District on behalf of our member businesses.

At the City our team has been engaged on the municipalization discussions. The City Council’s Environment Committee heard an updated report on the feasibility of the City taking over the electric grid and running a municipal electric utility. This action would potentially cost billions of dollars in taxpayer money and distract from important City priorities, something that Chamber President and CEO Chris Cate pointed out in a recent op-ed in the San Diego Union Tribune. We continue to advocate against municipalization and for the City to focus on pressing priorities like housing, homelessness, and public safety.

The County’s Air Pollution Control District (APCD) Governing Board has been considering the enactment of an indirect source rule, or ISR. An ISR would be a new and enormous regulatory framework for warehouses, logistics centers, and other buildings that are visited by large trucks. The buildings would essentially be penalized for the trucks that visit and would have to spend millions of dollars on emission reductions at their buildings, which are considered an “indirect source” of emissions in this case. APCD staff studied the cost of an ISR as well as potential emissions reductions and found that it would be an incredibly costly and incredibly ineffective way to reduce emissions in our region. The staff recommend incentive programs for clean vehicles as a smarter and more effective path forward. However, the Governing Board is still considering imposing an ISR. International and Policy Advisor Myriam Mendoza spoke at the Board’s last meeting in opposition to an ISR, highlighting its ineffectiveness at emissions reduction, its cost to our region’s business community, and its wide ranging effects in our border region. We will continue to advocate against an ISR at the next Governing Board meeting in June.