Update from Vistra
This week marks the one-year anniversary of the battery fire at Vistra’s Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility. We here at Vistra recognize the fire was a difficult moment for many and we appreciate everyone who has contributed to the response and recovery efforts, both at the facility and in the surrounding community. I’d like to share an update on the progress we’ve made since last January.
Immediately following the fire, Vistra and the U.S. EPA began designing a plan to access the damaged Moss 300 building and safely remove batteries and debris, prioritizing worker safety, community needs, and environmental protection. After months of careful preparation, cleanup at the site began last August. To date, more than 12,000 batteries have been safely removed from the site and sent to out-of-state recycling facilities.
Later this year, cleanup efforts will shift from the intact portion of the Moss 300 building to the section that burned during the fire. Accessing this area of the building will help advance the investigation into the fire’s origin, as the damaged portion of Moss 300 may hold information that our investigators need to complete their work. We are all eager to have answers as soon as possible, but we must conduct this investigation thoroughly. That takes time. Battery energy storage is vital to the future of California’s electric grid, and a thorough investigation will help the entire industry enhance its safety practices.
The health and safety of our community have guided every decision we’ve made in our response, and we are pleased to report that air, water and soil testing by multiple agencies over many months have found no risks to public health or agriculture related to the fire. Additional monitoring and testing continues under the supervision of the U.S. EPA on site and the Monterey County Environmental Health Bureau in the community. The results gathered to date have been reassuring and consistent with previous findings.
The success of recovery efforts to date would not have been possible without the work of those who assisted the community during and immediately following the fire. We are especially grateful for the efforts of Chief Mendoza and the North County Fire Protection District and first responders across Monterey County who helped ensure that no one sustained physical injury during the fire. We would also like to thank the Community Foundation for Monterey County, United Way Monterey County, and the Castro Plaza Family Resource Center, which quickly mobilized to help Vistra implement the community assistance program for those impacted by the evacuation order. We would also like to thank the members of the U.S. EPA who have been a part of the response with us since the beginning.
We mean it when we say Moss Landing is our home. Our employees live and work here, and we care for this place deeply. We promise to learn from this event and ensure that these learnings strengthen our energy grid and the Moss Landing community.
As always, you can stay up to date on our progress by visiting MossLandingResponse.com.
— Brad Masek, renewable operations director, Vistra
Facism is here
My father, stepfather and my husband’s father all served in the U.S. military during World War II. I was raised as a Quaker committed to non-violence, but I think of the war against Hitler to be a just one. The U.S. War Department in 1945 published a pamphlet to U.S. Army personnel in Europe with the topic of “fascism.” The publication asked: what is fascism? The document explained that it “is government by the few and for the few. The objective is seizure and control of the economic, political, social and cultural life of the state.” Fascists “make their own rules and change them when they choose. … They maintain themselves in power by use of force combined with propaganda based on primitive ideas of ‘blood’ and ‘race,’ by skillful manipulation of fear and hate, and by false promises of security. Americans should not be fooled into thinking that fascism could not come to America, the pamphlet warned. And yet, the Trump administration certainly fits this description. I am grateful to my brother who sends me Heather Cox Richardson’s post every day full of deep dives into our history. You can read her Jan. 9 post for greater detail.
— An McDowell, Monterey
Dumb drug ads
Anyone else disgusted with those TV drug ads warning us not to take their drug if we’re allergic to it. Well, duh! How stupid do they think the American public is to ingest substances they know will produce harmful results? Oh, wait a minute, they may have a point. I forgot about our president advising us to drink bleach as a cure for COVID.
— Glenn Nolte, Carmel Valley
