After Moss Landing fire, state tightens battery storage regulations
State regulators have started to move in the wake of the lithium-ion battery fire that erupted in Moss Landing earlier this year.
A unanimous decision by the five-person California Public Utilities Commission took place without much fanfare Thursday, on the third floor of a nondescript hall on the Santa Clara University campus. But with their vote, commissioners aim to prevent a Moss Landing 2.0, the threat of which continues to weigh heavy on Santa Cruzans’ minds as a similar-sized battery storage facility proposed for South County moves through the application process.
The resolution approved by CPUC commissioners — responsible for regulating privately owned utility companies — puts teeth behind previously adopted legislation and makes requirements out of some existing best practices.
Each battery energy storage system will now be required to submit its own emergency response and action plans, and to work with local authorities to develop emergency plans, or face financial penalties. Operators of these battery storage systems will also need to report safety incidents, including injuries, fatalities, thermal runaways, fires “or other system failures” to the CPUC within 24 hours — previously, operators weren’t required to report these incidents to the regulator.
In updating its rules, the CPUC now has the ability to fine the owners of battery storage facilities for noncompliance, the amounts of which will be determined case by case.
Ahead of the vote, CPUC President Alice Reynolds said expanding California’s battery storage portfolio was an important step in the state’s goals to move away from fossil fuels, but acknowledged the need to move carefully into the clean energy revolution.
“As we’re making progress, we have to be very, very aware of the safety risk,” Reynolds said.
Battery storage expansion has been rapid over the past several years, and is expected to continue into the next decades. In 2019, California claimed 500 megawatts of energy storage throughout the state. By the end of 2024, California had 13,000 MW, a 2,500% increase. A general rule of thumb is that a single megawatt can power 800 to 1,000 average households. The state has set a storage capacity goal of 52,000 MW by 2045.
That expansion has included a number of setbacks. Since 2021, the CPUC has counted nine “safety-related incidents,” four of which happened in Moss Landing. The regulator defines these incidents as any event causing injury, significant property damages, or fires, explosions and “hazardous emissions.” None has been more high-profile than the January blaze.
OF NOTE
Judge sides with Coastal Commission over Elon Musk: Last year, the California Coastal Commission — the state’s powerful land-use arm currently chaired by Santa Cruz County Supervisor Justin Cummings — said it would require SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket company, to apply for coastal development permits in order to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County. Musk’s company sued, claiming “naked political discrimination.” On Friday, a federal judge in Los Angeles sided with the Coastal Commission and dismissed the case. However, the judge will allow SpaceX to amend the suit and more clearly define the harm imposed by the state’s tighter permitting rules. Cummings, in a statement posted to social media over the weekend, called the lawsuit “a total crock of BS.”
The politics of where to get high: Last week, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors advanced a law that would allow cannabis dispensaries to open on-site smoking and consumption lounges. The idea has found support, expectedly, from the local cannabis industry but hasn’t gone over so well with political leaders in the county’s cities, some of whom have questioned the wisdom behind a change they say would invite more high drivers on the road.
A rail line could mean a billion dollars on bridges alone: The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission and an engineering consultant recommended replacing 28 of 33 rail bridges in Santa Cruz County — an effort they estimate could cost nearly $1 billion. As my colleague Max Chun reports, agencies will determine a more exact figure ahead of the RTC’s passenger rail project concept report, expected in the fall.
Watsonville’s “tiny village” homeless housing project overcomes another appeal: The Watsonville City Council last Tuesday denied a second appeal filed by resident Catalina Torres asking councilmembers to rescind zoning approval of the 34-unit “tiny village” project intended to provide shelter for the unhoused community on the property of Westview Presbyterian Church. My colleague Tania Ortiz has that story.
POINTS FOR PARTICIPATION
120-unit Workbench project hits planning commission: On Thursday, the City of Santa Cruz Planning Commission is set to vote on a project application by Workbench that proposes a six-story, 227,000-square-foot development at 831 Almar Ave., just off Mission Street on the city’s Westside. The project, which Workbench is calling “The New Fmali” would include 120 housing units, 18 of which will be income-restricted. That meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m.
ONE GREAT READ
Inside the Sean Combs hotline: The making of a mass tort, by Julia Jacobs for The New York Times
The criminal case against Sean “Diddy” Combs has been building since the rapper and record producer was taken into custody last year on sex trafficking charges. With Combs awaiting trial, dozens of related lawsuits have been filed against him, alleging years of sexual assault. As New York Times journalist Julia Jacobs reports, nearly 40 of those suits have been filed by the same attorney, Texas-based Tony Buzbee, who has been at the center of a factory-like operation to find potential plaintiffs.
The cases represent a mass tort, which combines the suits of individual plaintiffs against a single defendant. The area of law has been divisive, sometimes producing dubious claims and practices. As Jacobs writes:
“Lawyers for plaintiffs say the cases foster justice for those who have suffered at the hands of powerful people or institutions, such as former Boy Scouts who were sexually abused. But critics say mass torts, and the advertising often aligned with them, can draw frivolous claims that are haphazardly vetted, and that the sheer volume of cases can overwhelm both the court system and defense teams.”