We have discussed the ongoing issues with the management in this single-party governed state, and unfortunately, the situation continues to deteriorate. Despite the criticisms from figures like Newsom about gas-fueled cars, the wildfires, which might have been preventable with proper forest management, have caused more damage than a million Ford Explorers could have ever done.
The irony now lies in the clean, eco-friendly technology that Newsom promotes, as a significant fire broke out on Thursday night at a lithium battery facility in northern Monterey County. The consequences of prioritizing progress over potential risks are becoming evident.
Due to a major fire at a battery storage facility in Moss Landing, Highway 1 has been shut down, and evacuations were initiated in Moss Landing and the Elkhorn Slough area in northern Monterey County on Thursday afternoon.
The fire, which was raging out of control Thursday night, sending up huge flames and clouds of hazardous black smoke, was reported around 3 p.m. at the plant, located on Highway 1, Monterey County spokesman Nicholas Pasculli said.
Evacuations of about 1,500 people were ordered for areas of 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, he said.
In addition to making it impossible to use solar power during evening periods, it’s releasing VERY toxic heavy metal smoke.
UGH! https://t.co/RONkpVEXTj
— Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD (@houmanhemmati) January 17, 2025
Don’t worry, though; it’s all in the name of leadership. “California leads the nation in environmental stewardship,” Newsom recently proclaimed as he announced an executive order aimed at streamlining regulatory requirements to start rebuilding in the ravaged Pacific Palisades. To me, “environmental stewardship” does not include massive conflagrations that send so much smoke into the atmosphere that they can be seen from space, nor toxic battery fires that emit toxic chemicals into our collective atmosphere.
Nothing to see here, folks:
The plant is located on the site of a now-shuttered 1950s-era PG&E Moss Landing natural gas plant visible for its huge smokestacks near Moss Landing Harbor. The first phase was completed in 2020, and it was expanded to 750 megawatts in 2023. Vistra sells the electricity stored there to PG&E, which also owns another battery storage plant on the north side of the site that has hundreds of Tesla battery packs. That facility did not appear to be burning by 8 p.m.
The facility has been the site of other fires before.
1/3 of Gavin Newsom’s green energy storage milestone is currently sending gigantic plumes of poisonous lithium into the atmosphere. pic.twitter.com/fxBe8dLpSj
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) January 17, 2025
I am not opposed to progress and technology, and perhaps one day soon we will find a clean, safe energy solution (such as nuclear energy, which my colleague Ward Clark argues vociferously for), but in the meantime, the Joe Biden-Gavin Newsom et al. efforts to shove not-ready-for-prime time “solutions” down our throats before they’re ready has proven far more disastrous than the effects of SUVs or gas stoves or our water heaters.
At this point, it’s hard not to argue that the cure is far worse than the “disease” they claim is climate change. Meanwhile, if they truly believe that global warming is the cause of these fiery disasters—why weren’t they better prepared for them? Burning questions that need answers.
Gavin Newsom’s (political) world has gone up in smoke this week, and this latest toxic fire just ruins him even more.
It’s time for a different way.
