www.montereycountynow.com JANUARY 23-29, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 15 You do not need to be an expert to recognize that a fire at a lithium ion battery storage facility is potentially catastrophic. The experts have said as much since two lithium ion battery storage facilities were proposed and went into operation in Moss Landing in recent years. Speaking to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors in 2022 following a battery fire at the Elkhorn Battery plant, built by PG&E and Tesla, PG&E Vice President Jan Nimick said, “I can’t give you a number for the likelihood [of a repeat] at this stage of the life of the technology. It’s not zero.” Nothing is zero-risk. So when public officials react to a battery fire two years later demanding zero risk, it comes across as a call to simply walk away from the technology. That seems to be exactly what Assemblymember Dawn Addis, D-Morro Bay, is calling for in the wake of a major fire at Vistra’s Moss Landing battery plant that began on Thursday, Jan. 16 (see more, p. 8). Addis on Jan. 21 announced she would oppose Vistra’s proposed battery storage plant in Morro Bay at a similar power plant site. “We can never have a disaster like this again,” she said. “We all deserve solutions that prioritize safety and sustainability.” She joined County Supervisor Glenn Church in a press conference on Friday, Jan. 17, just as more batteries were combusting and sending flames into the air. They announced that they would ask for the plant not to go back online until there were assurances nothing like this would ever happen again. They should rightly be sticking up for constituents whose lives and businesses are disrupted and who fear for their safety. The public deserves answers, and an honest assessment of the risk—as well as the reward. Battery storage facilities like those in Moss Landing are not going to go away, nor should they, although the technology certainly can improve. California has a goal of building 52,000 megawatts of energy storage by 2045 to meet the state’s clean energy goals—solar energy and wind energy need to be stored somewhere. As of the end of 2024, according to the California Energy Commission, more than 13,000 megawatts of battery storage have been installed. That includes 187 utility-scale projects (the two in Moss Landing, Vistra’s and PG&E’s plants, are among those). Since 2016, there have been five fire-related incidents at utility-scale energy storage projects in California. In the same time frame, there were three at natural gas plants. Also in the same time period, the state’s last operational nuclear power plant, PG&E’s Diablo Canyon, was set to go out of commission. Concerns about the speed of scaling up alternative sources of energy led lawmakers, including State Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, to change their thinking about nuclear—Diablo Canyon got an extension. Laird is a realist when it comes to meeting the state’s electricity demands. Looking ahead, he says, “There are two key goals here. The first is to have enough energy in California and to move away from fossil fuels. The second is to make sure it’s done in a way that’s safe for everyone. In the coming days, we are going to look at this incident and try to figure out how we best meet those two goals.” What’s important is that we pursue these goals in tandem. If Californians reject battery storage, it means more reliance on nuclear and on fossil fuels. Since 2021, Vistra has been dismantling the natural gas power plant in Moss Landing; it once constantly spewed smoke out of its iconic 500foot smokestacks. Moss Landing is a place where, for the most part, industry coexists alongside nature. Church literally wrote the book about how Moss Landing, a deep-water harbor, almost became mega-industrialized as Humble Oil (later called Exxon) planned to build a refinery there in 1965. (His book, Humbled, was published in 2020.) A burgeoning local environmental movement pushed back, successfully. But the refinery did not go away; it went north to Benicia. To live in an industrialized world means we have to have industry. We can choose which industry, and we can empower our regulators to regulate it and manage the risk. Wishing it away is simply not an option. Sara Rubin is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com. Fired Up Yes, we need safeguards—but we also need battery storage technology. By Sara Rubin ET SUE?…If you can’t beat ‘em, sue ‘em, and while you’re doing that, why not make some money to finance said lawsuits? That appears to be the model that Todd Clark, co-owner of Museum of Handcar Technology, is employing at his business, which offers tours in handcars down the rails of the Monterey Branch Line from Del Monte Boulevard in Marina to south of Lightfighter Avenue in Seaside. On Nov. 30, Clark filed a federal lawsuit against the Transportation Agency for Monterey County, alleging TAMC didn’t renew the business’s lease, which expired Oct. 31, in retaliation because Clark brought to light TAMC’s failure to fulfill its obligations to create rail service under Prop. 116, a 1990 rail ballot measure that TAMC used to finance its acquisition of the branch line in 2003. Then on Jan. 3, Clark filed another lawsuit, this one in Monterey County Superior Court, against the California Transportation Commission, the state agency tasked with overseeing Prop. 116 acquisitions, that broadly alleges the agency didn’t fulfill its obligations under the law to see that the money was spent responsibly, and in the spirit of what voters approved in 1990. And it appears that Clark is going to keep the wheels rolling until the litigation is sorted—despite his lease expiring more than two months ago, he’s still carrying on, business as usual. That gives Squid a chance to go work all the arms riding a handcar. BIG A** LIES…There have been a few viruses going around Squid’s lair lately, so Squid is using all of Squid’s remedies: extra saltwater (easy to come by), shrimp noodle soup and lots of sleep. Squid swears this stuff works—but Squid knows better than to try and sell these techniques to any other creatures. Not so for the Kentucky-based company Big Ass Fans, which finds itself subject of a Dec. 13 civil complaint filed in Monterey County Superior Court by a boatload of California district attorneys, including Monterey County DA Jeannine Pacioni. In the allegations of unlawful business practices and false advertising, Pacioni argues that starting in June 2020—peak Covid-19 fear—the company “advertised and sold products that purported to ‘kill’ pathogens in the air and on surfaces, including ultraviolet germicidal irradiation lamps and ionization technology,” using equipment that attaches to ceiling fans sold by the same company. They promised it would reduce Covid infection risk 78-92 percent, which seems to Squid like an entirely made-up figure. (Squid’s colleague reached out to the company, but did not hear back.) It might be years later, but Pacioni is seeking a court order prohibiting the sale of these items, $2,500 for each violation and restitution to the victims. Squid will volunteer to add to the restitution with a cup of shrimp noodle soup for each consumer. THE LOCAL SPIN SQUID FRY THE MISSION OF MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY IS TO INSPIRE INDEPENDENT THINKING AND CONSCIOUS ACTION, ETC. Battery storage facilities are not going to go away. SEND SQUID A TIP: squid@montereycountynow.com
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