Upping the urgency around battery storage policy in Santa Cruz County
Though a noble aspiration, the pursuit for perfection can often lead to a disregard for “good enough.” For classical concert pianists, that can be a risk worth taking. But not so much for those tasked with shaping public policy.
Santa Cruz County lawmakers have been batting around proposed rules for battery energy storage systems — known as BESS, which store and deploy renewable energy for the electrical grid — for more than a year.
Of course, the Moss Landing fire in January brought intense scrutiny upon battery systems, and intense pressure upon those tasked with regulating them. That sense of needing to get it right the first time was on display last month when the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors voted to delay any action on a BESS policy until as late as August 2026.
However, perfection takes time, and time is not necessarily a luxury in Santa Cruz County when it comes to battery storage facilities. Massachusetts-based New Leaf Energy has proposed a 200-megawatt BESS near agricultural land in South County. (For comparison, the Moss Landing facility that caught fire was 300 megawatts.) The proposal has sat in the county’s hopper since December, and New Leaf Energy’s project developer, Max Christian, has spent the past nine months waiting for the county to frame a local ordinance around BESS projects, as well as working an urgent public relations campaign to show the many ways New Leaf’s proposal, known as Seahawk, is different from Moss Landing.
Despite Christian’s stated preference to permit the project through a local process that involves robust public comment, and votes from the planning commission and board of supervisors, he said New Leaf Energy would not wait until next August to begin the permitting process, largely due to the project’s seven-figure holding costs. Instead, he said New Leaf may elect to move its project through a state process that allows it to skip local approvals.
“August 2026 would be too late for the project to remain viable,” Christian told me last week. “I think we would have to consider the state route as a possibility.”
Over the past several months, local groups have formed to oppose BESS facilities in the region, and the county’s environmental commission has held public education meetings on the promise and risks of the technology. All the while, questions around the county’s battery policy, and the future of the Seahawk project, have only increased. Now, New Leaf Energy is upping the pressure on the county government to advance something — whether perfect or simply good enough — or risk losing local control over the project.
Pair my recent story on this developing issue with my colleague Tania Ortiz’s piece — to publish tomorrow — which fact-checks the reality behind other possible locations in the county for future BESS facilities.
OF NOTE
Verve Coffee can’t stay out of the headlines: As food writer extraordinaire Lily Belli reports, employees at multiple Verve Coffee Roasters locations are attempting to unionize, demanding better benefits from their employer. And, speaking of benefits, the local coffee powerhouse recently began charging customers a 5% fee to pay for employee health benefits. However, as the baristas making and serving coffee told Lily, many of them don’t receive those benefits.
Judge sides with state pesticide regulator: Monterey County Superior Court Judge Tom Wills ruled that the state’s Department of Pesticide Regulation was not at fault when it allowed the county’s agricultural commissioner to permit the use of highly toxic pesticides on six berry farms in the Pajaro Valley. The plaintiffs argued that neither the ag commissioner nor the state agency did enough to study the risks of exposure to the chemicals, or viable alternatives to their use.
POINTS FOR PARTICIPATION
Capitola to host public hearing on Cliff Drive improvements: The city’s planning commission will hear from the public on plans to reinforce Cliff Drive from the western city limit to Capitola Village. The project, long under development, is aimed at protecting the scenic coastal stretch from erosion. The meeting kicks off at 6 p.m. on Thursday.
The rail project continues to face dire funding straits: Cost reduction is in focus at the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission’s meeting this week, with the commission set to discuss a funding gap for Coastal Rail Trail Segments 8 through 11 and ways to cut costs and finance the multi-use trail project. A staff report says that Segments 8 and 9 — from the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf to 17th Avenue — are now expected to cost $77.4 million to build, while Segments 10 and 11 — from 17th Avenue to State Park Drive — are set to cost $137.6 million — making for a $72 million funding gap that sales tax revenue from 2016’s Measure D cannot cover. That meeting begins at 9 a.m. on Thursday. – Max Chun
ONE GREAT DEVELOPMENT
This week, in lieu of an article or poem recommendation, I want to point you to something new from your favorite Santa Cruz County news agency. Today, we are launching the Lookout List, a sort of annual, reader-driven “best of” that will feature our readers’ favorite people, places and things in our community. Nominations begin today, and will run through Sept. 21. Then, voting will run from Oct. 6-26, with the official winners announced on Nov. 3. For more information, follow this link.