Vistra Energy and PG&E’s Moss Landing battery facilities began having overheating and fire incidents within the first year of operation. The last fire, in September 2022, shut down Highway 1 for twelve hours and required a shelter-in-place for nearby residents due to unknown levels of toxic gases.
Monterey County didn’t prepare Environmental Impact Reports (EIRs) for the “world’s largest” facilities, saying in its Mitigated Negative Declarations that the only real environmental impacts were from construction activities, not project operations, and “less than significant” with mitigation measures. Regarding Vistra’s application, “During project operations, little to no hazardous materials are anticipated…Therefore, the project would result in a less than significant impact relative to hazards and hazardous materials.”
In an incident September 2021, KION reported that batteries overheated, battery racks “scorched”, and wires “melted.” A source told me privately the overheating-thermal runaway-fire was still ongoing in mid-November, with no end in sight and everyone waiting, because lithium fires can’t be doused.
As the public began waking up to the safety problem, county leaders held a faux town hall featuring government and company officials in September 2023. No independent experts or environmental organizations were included, the public was not allowed to speak, and panelists only answered a few questions. County staff didn’t know about contaminated soil and its dumping. Officials revealed they used the wrong weather data to predict toxic plume direction in an accident, and Dawn Addis lied about BESS opposition in Morro Bay.
Toxic lithium-ion batteries are explosively flammable to water, air, and heat, and vulnerable to thermal runaway. These fires can release large amounts of lethal hydrogen fluoride gas, and like trick birthday candles, can reignite after being extinguished. These facilities are located next to the region’s electricity generating plant, in an earthquake zone, under the two 500+ foot-tall Moss Landing smokestacks, in a tsunami and sea level rise inundation zone, in a corrosive marine environment, next to Elkhorn Slough wetlands.
If these facilities have major fires or explosions, the result could be considerable Monterey Bay damage, Highway 1 blocked, electricity cut off, contamination of land, and injuries and deaths to humans and wildlife. Officials were not prepared for the last fire. Why did Monterey County officials ignore major hazards to approve these facilities? How much money flows to developers, and through them, to politicians like Laird, Addis, and county leaders?
Nina Beety
Monterey