The Texas company, which built an enormous battery storage system at Moss Landing, which burned in a fantastic fire last month and caused the evacuation of 1,200 people and the closure of the Highway 1 for 3 days, hurried to construct the power and cut corners, which led to uncertain conditions, claims a lawsuit submitted on Thursday.

One of the most important electricity providers within the United States, the corporate, Visstra, stacked 100,000 batteries in an aging concrete constructing in a former PG & e-earth gas system from the Nineteen Fifties when it built the system five years ago, and used a sort of battery with the next risk of outdated fires than other available technologies.

“It is an environmental tragedy that didn't have to happen,” said Joe Cotchett, a Burlingame lawyer who submitted the lawsuit. “If Visstra had done a correct job with the right storage of those batteries, this is able to never have happened.

“If she had set up a system to stop a fire that could happen, this would never have happened,” he added. “There is a combination of mistakes here.”

Visstra officials based in Irving, Texas, said on Thursday that that they had no comment.

“Moss Landing not only houses our facility, but the home of our employees and neighbors,” said the corporate in a press release in a press release in a press release On an internet site It was created to tell the community concerning the fire and upcoming clean -up work. “We strive to do everything to do it for our community and work together with federal, state and local authorities to ensure public health and security.”

The lawsuit Submitted to the US district court in San Jose, the third lawsuit, which has been submitted to Visstra for the reason that fire on January 16, submitted by an organization in San Diego, Singleton Schreiber. Wüstenstadt in San Bernardino County.

“Such complaints are to be expected if a facility has a big fire,” said Dustin Mulvaney, professor of environmental studies at San Jose State University.

“But this may be the biggest battery fire that we have ever seen,” he said, found that latest battery storage systems in inside the MOSS landing system don’t stack any batteries in order that a hearth doesn’t spread and up to date battery, lithium-iron phosphate, which is less vulnerable to fire.

“This facility would not be built today,” said Mulvaney. “It had no sufficient containment to keep a fire from spreading.”

The lawsuit on Thursday was submitted within the name of Kim and Luis Solano, which the Haute Enchilada Restaurant and the Gallery in Moss Landing, which they closed for an indefinite period attributable to a big business drop after the hearth. The couple also has five holiday apartments and says that they’ve suffered cancellations and concerns about their health.

Cotchett said he expects to submit a category motion lawsuit on behalf of other residents in the approaching days and weeks to hunt damage and force the corporate to enable the medical monitoring of people that were exposed to poisonous smoke from the burning batteries, which contained heavy metals equivalent to nickel, manganese and cobalt.

In the lawsuit, Visstra said that the old PG & E plant in 2020 converted into one in all the world's largest battery storage systems to be able to observe the deadlines set by the California Public Pension Commission and other agencies.

“The battery storage method used was unsafe, unstable and susceptible to the creation of a chemical and heavy metal powder tap when one or more battery modules fail and catch fire,” says the suit.

The flame, the reason behind which has not yet been determined, spread a toxic cloud over kilometers of residential and farmers near the border between Santa Cruz Monterey County. Although the US environmental protection authority announced three days after the hearth that “the results of hydrogen fluoride and particles had no risk of public health throughout the incident, and smoke from the facility has dropped greatly”, a whole bunch of residents within the region complain about respiratory problems, sore throat, a metallic taste and other health concerns.

The incident has given the battery storage industry – which is of crucial importance for the expansion of renewable energies in California, a significant problem of public relations.

Large battery storage systems are planned throughout California and built faster than somewhere within the USA at dozens of locations. They are a critical a part of the state's plans to expand renewable energies by storing electricity that may use solar parks and wind turbines later if the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow.

According to the California Energy Commission, there are 187 battery systems in California in California – from only 17 in 2019. Battery storage has increased by 1,343% previously six years, from 928 megawatts to 13,391 Megawatt today. A megawatts are enough electricity to operate 750 houses.

The meeting woman Dawn Addis, D-Maorro Bay, has introduced an invoice from 303 that blocks the development of recent battery storage systems inside 3,200 feet of homes, schools, hospitals and firms.

Mulvaney, an authority within the technology, said state supervisory authorities had to supply more supervision.

“If I were the state, I would immediately ask for all of these facilities to be inspected to calm the public,” he said. “We can't have any further fire. This was too big within the industry. Batteries are too essential to expand renewable energies. We need more of them. “

Originally published: February 27, 2025 at 3:28 p.m. PST

On Friday, Martinez Raffining Company released an update on the examination of the reason behind a refiner edge on February 1 and informed information in regards to the effects of public health of smoke stacks over the Northern Contra Costa County.

The latest update incorporates details on the corporate's request, which led to a brief protection within the position of public health and security authorities that were obtained about particles that were released from the refinery. The update also warns the general public of flare up because refinery units are “drained and cleaned”.

“We are urgently and thoroughly working to identify the basic causes (s) and take suitable corrective measures,” says the press release of the Martinez Raffining Company. “Contra Costa Health has requested certain information about the products that were published or set on fire during the incident, and MRC quickly works on the period of February 10, 2025 to provide this information.”

A start 72-hour incident report The details on the source of the gas leak published on Wednesday and the reason behind the hearth, including the air quality measurements through the incident, showed the “no significant” air pollution from the hearth. The contamination was identified as lower than £ 500 sulfur dioxide, a gaseous air pollutant that’s related to respiration problems and irritation for the eyes, nose and neck.

The report speculates that hydrocarbon gas has ceded from the method units of the refinery when two employees opened the devices at around 1:30 p.m. to arrange for the planned maintenance.

“The two workers immediately evacuated the area and the material then caught fire, which spread in the immediate vicinity,” says the 72-hour incident report.

Officials of the Martinez Refining Company shared the Air District of Bay Aea at 1:41 p.m. and designated Contra Costa County Health Service Hazard Material Programs at 1:48 p.m. for a public health warning at Level 2, which demanded sensitive population groups to air outside of air to avoid.

At 3:22 p.m., the administrators of the Martinez Raffining Company contacted the prevention and response of the oil spill. Details of the decision weren’t immediately available within the report.

At 3:53 p.m., the US Coast Guard was informed in regards to the incident and sent half a dozen staff to the administration constructing of the Martinez Raffining Company. The department for the department of the Contra Costa Health Services has improved its public health warning to a level 3 accommodation at the purpose around an hour later for the parts of Martinez within the north and east of the refinery.

The department called the order on this position at around 9:15 p.m., but advice on public health remained available for the areas concerned on Saturday evening. The most up-to-date report doesn’t contain any details about why officials issued an animal shelter three hours after the hearth had ignited.

The update of Friday from the refineries said that flare up could last in the approaching weeks while the examination continues. In the new edition, it also says that “refinery operating units were closed”, except the needed usefulness and environmental systems.

“Torches are an essential part of the integrated, constructed security systems of a refinery, which, through efficient and effective combustion, should surely manage excess gases and pressure,” explains Martinez Raffining Company. “MRC will continue to work cooperatively with all inspections and investigations by the agency.”

The city of Martinez published a public explanation on Friday morning, by which he called for Contra Costa County to guard the Martinez Raffinerie company the community and the health of the general public.

“We ask the district and regulate the agencies to keep the refinery on a higher standard, both for the security of its employees and for the security of the community,” the reason said.

Originally published: February 7, 2025 at 12:49 p.m. PST

Local news

Local democrats have plenty of experience with wild claims and chaotic press conferences from President Donald Trump. His decision to instantly accuse the demands of the range for the worst catastrophe of the US airfare for years, though corpses have been identified and cleaned were cleaned, it appeared to increase a certain nerve with democratic legislators from New England.

Sixty people died on Wednesday evening when a helicopter of the military and a passenger jet American airline collided over the Potomac River near the Ronald Reagan National Airport. Among them were two teenagers, their moms and two trainers from the Skating Club in Boston.

“He is not doing well,” said Rep. Becca Balint from Vermont about Trump in a video that was released on social media on Thursday. “We have to stop normalizing this. This is not what President do, but that is not what managers do. “

“I first put security. Obama, bidges and the Democrats put politics in the first place, ”Trump told reporters on Thursday. He cited no specific evidence that the necessities of diversity played a job within the crash.

He referred to the long -standing practices of the Federal Aviation Administration to incorporate individuals with disabilities in recruitment. As early as 2013And in all of Trumps First termThe FAA website contained a language in regards to the attitude of “special focus” on the attitude of people with “targeted disabilities” such as “hearing, eyesight, lack of extremities, partly paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe mental disability, psychiatric disability and dwarf scales “.

The multi-fold and inclusion sides of the FAA did not mention air traffic controls or other specific positions for which people are set with these disabilities. Air traffic controls have to meet High standards for physical and mental health.

In addition, actually the FAA launched “A pilot program to organize individuals with disabilities for careers in air traffic in the primary term of trump”.

The faa appeared to be Without a top official At the time of the crash. Michael Whitaker, who was unanimously confirmed by the Senate as a FAA administrator in 2023, resigned on the day of Trump's inauguration at first of this month. Elon Musk, the richest man on the earth and a detailed consultant of Trump, asked Whitakers to step down Last September. Trump card assigned A new acting administrator who heads the FAA on Thursday.

According to a preliminary FAA security report, which was handled by the two aircraft with the two aircraft, the staff in the traffic control tower was “not normal”, which handled the two planes. A controller advised both helicopters and airplanes in the Airport of Reagan, reported. This is usually something of two people.

The National Transportation Safety Board carries out an investigation and treats the situation as a “all-hand-on deck event”.

“Trump's ridiculous fault of the tragic crash of the FAA variety of last night is disgusting and a distraction. Let us do your work to the experts, ”Senator Ed Markay said.

Rep. Lori Trahan called Trump's comments “disgusting. “”

“What a betrayal“, Rep. Katherine Clark, said about Trump's comments.

Trump took the opportunity to show this incident “not to show leadership and empathy, but to Create a speculative story That fits comfortably with his political agenda, ”said Rep. Seth Moulton.

MP Ayanna Pressley said Trump was a “ruthless, lawless, dangerous man”, who ignored his responsibility, to comfort the tragedy grieving families.

I’m broken with a broken heart for the victims of the crash and their grieving families and relatives in Massachusetts & across the country.

Dr. King reminds us of power without love is ruthless and we see that from this white house. pic.twitter.com/kkst0SSGU

– Congressman Ayanna Pressley (@Reppressley) January 31, 2025

MOSS LANDING — Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church and state Assembly member Dawn Addis are calling for the Vistra Moss Landing battery energy storage facility in Moss Landing to stay offline until officials can explain what caused the hearth that began Thursday has broken out, and may assure the general public that this plant is secure.

Church previously called for a “full independent investigation at all levels into exactly what happened.”

A Vistra representative responded later Friday afternoon, saying that determining when the plant comes back online will likely be a “collaborative process” and that the corporate will follow regulations and inform the general public.

The fire appeared to flare up again Friday afternoon, but Addis and Church said they were informed the hearth would flare up if more batteries flared up contained in the constructing where the hearth ignited.

The fire prompted an evacuation affecting about 1,200 people and the closure of Highway 1 in each directions in addition to other roads. The evacuation orders were lifted late Friday.

“There has to be some accountability,” Church said within the Friday morning news conference, noting that this was the fourth fire on the Moss Landing battery facilities in five years.

The fire at one among the world's largest battery energy storage systems occurred in a constructing containing 300 lithium-ion batteries, an unknown variety of which burned and proceed to burn. Hazardous substances present in lithium-ion battery smoke include hydrogen fluoride, a colorless gas that may cause serious physical harm.

North County Fire District Chief Joel Mendoza said a hearth suppression system on a battery rack did not contain the hearth. The fire was at its most intense Thursday evening, he said, and was mostly out Friday morning. However, the cloud remained a priority and was being monitored by each the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and CTEH, an external Vistra consultant.

Mendoza reported that preliminary information from monitoring the plume showed that no dangerous hydrogen fluoride was detected.

Flames could possibly be seen coming from the power again on Friday afternoon, and the cloud of flames had grown exponentially.

On Friday morning, Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto said evacuation orders were still in effect and were awaiting the report from the advanced air surveillance system to “play it safe so no one gets hurt” before the county and sheriff's office Department revoked evacuation orders

Pete Ziegler, regional vice chairman who oversees the Moss Landing power plant and energy storage facility, said monitoring began immediately after the hearth broke out.

He acknowledged the system error, but added: “We do not yet know what triggered this event.”

Church called the hearth a “worst-case scenario disaster here,” adding that it was a “wake-up call for this industry.”

The fire on the Vistra power plant began around 3pm on Thursday and no injuries or fatalities were reported.

Vistra and Pacific Gas and Electric/Tesla operate battery storage facilities on the Moss Landing power plant.

The Moss Landing power plant site has been producing energy in various ways since 1950. It has the infrastructure and demarcated land that make it a chief location for battery storage systems. The energy storage systems exist there after going through the general public process and were approved by commissions and committees before construction and operation.

Vistra experienced incidents in its battery storage system on September 4, 2021 and February 13, 2022. An incident occurred at Pacific Gas and Electric/Tesla, also referred to as Elkhorn Battery Energy Storage System, on September 20, 2022.

Both Vistra incidents on the Moss Landing facility in 2021 and 2022 were brought on by water leaks from the mitigation system. This led to ground faults, arcing and native smoke. Both events were localized to the location and had no impact on air, water, soil or surrounding communities.

The laws, enacted in response to the 2022 fire outbreak on the Elkhorn Battery Energy Storage System facility in Moss Landing, was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in October 2023.

Senate Bill 38, authored by State Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, and co-authored by Assemblymember Dawn Adddis, D-Morro Bay, requires battery storage facilities to ascertain security and communications protocols.

“If renewable energy is to be the future, it really needs to be based on safe energy,” Church said.

.

Originally published: January 18, 2025 at 10:42 am PST

Officials reported Saturday they were “cautiously optimistic” that the worst was over after a serious fire broke out Thursday afternoon that destroyed many of the Vistra warehouse facility in Moss Landing.

About 80% of the power and the lithium batteries it housed were consumed by the fireplace, North Monterey County Fire Department Chief Joel Mendoza said Monday Press conference on Saturday. Located across from Moss Landing Harbor on the location of a former PG&E power plant, the power houses tens of hundreds of lithium batteries. Such battery fires are notoriously difficult to extinguish, can burn at high temperatures and release toxic gases that may cause respiration problems, skin burns and eye irritation.

By 2 p.m. Saturday, the flames had died down and the smoke had subsided, however the heat remained contained in the constructing. And since it's normal for battery fires particularly to re-intensify, first responders continued to maintain U.S. Highway 1 closed in each directions between Highway 183 and Struve Road, officials said. There isn’t any estimated time for the reopening of Highway 1.

“The last thing we need is for the public to hinder emergency services from doing their job,” said Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto.

Federal officials are monitoring air quality along with Vistra's roaming air quality monitoring efforts, said Olivia Trombadore, on-site coordinator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The agency deployed nine air quality monitors the primary night after the fireplace began to examine the fireplace scene and evacuation area and surrounding areas for hydrogen fluoride and particulate matter, two pollutants that may pose a health risk. Their models suggested it was hydrogen fluoride, an acidic gas dangerous if inhaledwould have been destroyed in a hearth of that size, she said.

“We have not detected levels of these two contaminants that would pose a risk to the public,” she said.

The majority of residents living near the Vistra storage facility in Moss Landing returned home Friday evening, officials said, just hours after an evacuation order was lifted.

Monterey County spokesman Nicholas Pasculli said the precise variety of residents returning is unclear. In an update Friday evening, the Monterey County Emergency Management Agency said air quality monitoring confirmed that “there is no threat to human health.”

The wildfire raises questions on the protection of a technology — battery storage — considered essential to long-term support of expanded use of solar and wind energy in California. In recent years, the state has increasingly relied on massive battery storage facilities to capture electricity in the course of the day and release it to the grid at night to cut back the danger of blackouts during hot, high-demand summer months.

County Executive Glenn Church and Rep. Dawn Addis called on Vistra to offer the general public with greater safety guarantees in terms of its roughly $1 billion battery storage facility.

“We need to make sure that when we say to a community, 'We're working on climate solutions,' we're not saying, 'We're doing this, but it's on the basis of your health and safety,” Addis called for a full investigation into the fireplace.

“We will use the best technology and the best human minds to ensure we have the greatest possible chance of something like this not happening again,” said Brad Watson, senior director of community affairs at Vistra.

The fire was reported on Thursday afternoon as alarming clouds of black smoke rose from certainly one of the world's largest battery storage plants. The event closed Highway 1 and evacuated residents in northern Monterey County, from areas from Moss Landing south of Elkhorn Slough, north of Molera Road and Monterey Dunes Way and west of Castroville Boulevard and Elkhorn Road to the ocean.

The fire department didn’t fight the fireplace but allowed it to burn out by itself. The flames continued to burn throughout Thursday and continued to smolder into Friday. Evacuation orders were lifted around 6 p.m. Friday evening, with officials advising returning residents to remain indoors, limit outdoor exposure and switch off their ventilation systems.

Monterey officials said Friday they were misled by Vistra, the Texas-based energy giant that built the 750-megawatt power plant in 2020.

Mendoza said Vistra's fire suppression system, which had worked in previous situations, was inadequate and the fireplace engulfed the system. He added that air quality monitors arrange by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials had not detected hydrogen fluoride gas, certainly one of the most important hazardous substances that may arise from burning batteries.

In addition, a county hotline has been arrange at 831-769-8700 for residents to call officials in the event that they have questions on air quality and safety best practices, Pasculli said.

Originally published: January 18, 2025 at 5:39 pm PST

Today is Sunday, July 28, the 210th day of the 12 months 2024. There are 156 days left within the 12 months.

Today in history:

On July 28, 1945, a U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building in New York, then the tallest constructing on the planet, killing 14 people.

Also on this date:

In 1794, Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just were executed by guillotine in the course of the French Revolution.

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that he would increase the variety of American troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.

In 1976, an earthquake devastated northern China, killing at the least 242,000 people, in keeping with official estimates.

When the 1984 Summer Olympics opened in Los Angeles, 14 Eastern Bloc countries, led by the Soviet Union, boycotted the games.

In 1995, a jury in Union, South Carolina, rejected the death penalty for Susan Smith and sentenced her to life in prison for drowning her two young sons (Smith might be eligible for parole in November 2024).

In 1996, 8,000-year-old human skeletal stays (later called Kennewick Man) were discovered on the banks of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington.

In 2004, the Irish Republican Army officially announced the tip of its armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland.

In 2015, it was announced that Jonathan Pollard, the previous U.S. Navy intelligence analyst who spent nearly three many years in prison for spying for Israel, had been released on parole.

In 2018, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of US Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington DC, following allegations of sexual abuse, including involving an 11-year-old boy.

In 2019, a gunman opened fire at a preferred garlic festival in Gilroy, California, killing three people, including a six-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, and injuring 17 others before taking his own life.

Today's birthdays:

• The music conductor Riccardo Muti is 83.
• Former Senator and NBA Hall of Famer Bill Bradley is 81.
• “Garfield” creator Jim Davis is 79.
• Television producer Dick Ebersol is 77.
• Actress Sally Struthers is 77.
• The architect Santiago Calatrava is 73.
• CBS television journalist Scott Pelley is 67.
• Actress Lori Loughlin is 60.
• Jazz musician and producer Delfeayo Marsalis is 59.
• UFC President Dana White is 55.
• Actress Elizabeth Berkley is 52.
• Manu Ginobili, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, is 47.
• Actor John David Washington is 40.
• Actor Dustin Milligan is 39.
• Rapper Soulja Boy is 34.
• England football star Harry Kane is 31.
• Pop/rock singer Cher Lloyd is 31.
• Golfer Nelly Korda is 26.

Originally published: July 28, 2024 at 01:00

Four months to go election dayThe earliest debate in parliamentary elections There were two presidents – one current and one former – and lots of bitter personal attacks. Joe Biden’s widely acknowledged poor performance surprised and even panicked Democrats; Donald Trump gave a more forceful – if not truthful – Perfomance.

The Conversation asked two scholars, Mary Kate Cary and Karrin Vasby Anderson, to observe the talk and analyze a passage or moment that particularly stood out to them. Anderson is a communications scientist specializing in gender and presidency and political popular culture. Cary teaches political speechwriting and worked as a speechwriter within the White House for President George HW Bush, for whom she wrote greater than 100 speeches.

Karrin Vasby Anderson, Department of Communication Studies, Colorado State University

One of the primary definitions of fine public speaking that I learned as a speaker and rhetoric student at university got here from the ancient Roman scholar and rhetoric teacher Quintilian. In his 12-volume “Institution Oratory”, Quintilian said that the best orator was a great one that could speak well. He was particularly concerned concerning the danger that a gifted rhetorician without character could pose to society.

A presidential debate should highlight the best speakers—capable orators who’re also people of character. The June 27 debate presented voters with an either/or scenario.

Former President Donald Trump was aggressive, confident and disciplined, but he spiced his statements with a constant stream of lies, half-truths and misinformationPresident Joe Biden focused on Trump's documented past – each criminal and political – but failed as a speaker, displaying neither the charisma nor the composure he had during his recent State of the Union Address just 4 months ago.

The contrast was evident early in the talk when CNN's Dana Bash asked Trump if he would block access to abortion drugs. Trump said he wouldn’t. He then falsely claimed that within the run-up to the Supreme Court's decision in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade and repealed federal protection of abortion rights“everyone wanted to bring it back to the States, everyone, without exception.”

Trump then went on the offensive, accusing Democrats of taking “the life of a child in the eighth month, in the ninth month, even after birth.”

Biden's response was initially clear and decisive: “What you did was terrible,” he said. And he countered the absurd claim that “everyone” desires to overturn Roe v. Wade, saying, “The idea that the states are able to do that is a little bit like saying we're giving civil rights back to the states and letting each state have its own rules.”

But the remainder of Biden's answer was confusing. After “inexplicably different“ into an anecdote about a woman murdered by an undocumented immigrant, Biden expressed his support for people’s right to choose, saying on three separate occasions that the The decision ought to be made by the doctorand never the pregnant person.

Trump ended the section by repeating his obvious lie in even stronger terms: “That means he can take the baby’s life, in the ninth month and even after birth, because some Democrat-run states take it after birth.” The Associated Press fact check This claim is succinct: “Infanticide is a crime in all states, and no state has passed a law allowing the killing of a baby after birth.”

After nearly a decade of Trump's constant disinformation, lies about federal baby murders is probably not so shocking in a presidential debate. And it's actually an argument Biden could have easily refuted.

However, when the population has to make a choice from a great person and someone who’s a great speaker, Quintilian desires to remind us that somebody who speaks well but lacks integrity is dangerous.

The consequences for the Republic could possibly be devastating.

Mary Kate Cary, Department of Political Science, University of Virginia

I believe history was just made in America.

Within 10 minutes very hoarse President Joe Bidenwas asked about deficit spending, lost his thread, and ended his answer by mumbling something about “beating Medicare.” It was awful.

There were so many moments when Biden looked confused and unable to process what happened. I took notes on the important thing exchanges, but Biden's embarrassing episodes, unfinished sentences, and incoherent phrasing are too long to list. His answer to the query of why he ought to be president at over 80 one way or the other revolved around whether computer chips are made in South Korea.

Former President Donald Trump made his share of misstepsbut overall he was relatively sharp and reserved when provoked. He was in a position to rating some points on the topics and did significantly better than on their first debate 4 years ago. Trump has done higher than I believe many individuals expected.

Our job tonight was to search out a moment to answer and put it in context. I've been to several presidential debates over time and seen many more on television, but I've never seen anything like this.

Is there a way for Democrats to make a convincing argument for keeping Biden as their candidate?

Bottom line: Moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash did a great job of asking factual questions and maintaining control of the talk; Trump missed a possibility to say victory but pulled it off; and Biden will most definitely have wreaked havoc for the Democratic Party.