Oct 31 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - John Woolfolk San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

The San Jose City Council on Tuesday unanimously endorsed Mayor Chuck Reed's "green vision," setting ambitious goals for reducing energy use and promoting solar power and other pollution-free technology over 15 years.

Reed said clean technology is a sound investment for the city because it reduces energy costs. He also said attracting technology companies could improve San Jose's economy.

"It's good for the bottom line as well as for the environment," Reed said.

The 10 goals include reducing per-capita energy use by 50 percent; attracting 25,000 jobs in solar and other clean technologies; diverting all solid waste from landfills; recycling or reusing all wastewater; and having all public fleet vehicles run on alternative fuels.

As a step toward those goals, the council also unanimously approved a recommendation by Councilman Pete Constant to expand the city's Clean Air Vehicle Parking program. The program originally allowed people who bought hybrid or other low-emission vehicles at San Jose dealers to qualify for a free-parking program.

Now, electric or "zero-emission" vehicles registered in the city can qualify even if they were bought elsewhere; Constant himself owned such a vehicle, but sold it before the vote to avoid a possible conflict of interest. The council also asked that city officials research including other low-emission vehicles purchased outside San Jose.

Environmental Services Director John Stufflebean said his

department will establish teams to monitor progress on each of the 10 green-vision goals.

Councilman Forrest Williams said it's important for the city to live up to its promises.

"We have a lot of plans and actions and visions," Williams said. "The thing that's most important is how we measure things, so we can have a record of our accomplishments going forward."

Local recycling and solar power businesses applauded the council vote and said the lofty goals are achievable.

"There's nothing going to landfills that's not recyclable," said Bill McGeever, vice president of operations at ASL, a San Jose electronic-waste recycler.

"I think it's absolutely realistic," said Brian Sager, vice president of development at Nanosolar, which is moving into a new San Jose factory next month. "The energy crisis in the world isn't going to go away, and solar gives us an opportunity to impact that."

Contact John Woolfolk at jwoolfolk@mercurynews.com or (408) 975-9346.