Major Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Sparks Concerns About California’s Energy Future

MOSS LANDING, Calif.—Around twilight on January 16, Brad Beach was tending to his small herd of Texas Longhorn cattle—a magnificent bull named Tex, along with two cows and three calves, grazing approximately two miles inland from California’s central coastline.

Beach noticed smoke drifting from the coastline, where two towers outline the unique silhouette of an energy facility. Shortly after departing from his herd, he observed that a significant fire had erupted at the plant and returned to rescue his cattle, only to be met by the California Highway Patrol, which had cordoned off the area as residents were evacuated.

“I showed up the next day,” Beach recounted to The Epoch Times. “Nothing was going to stop me.”

By that time, he noted, the animals were in severe distress. “They seemed to be saying, ‘Dad, save us.’”

Despite his efforts, the animals remained agitated, and three weeks later, one of them delivered a stillborn calf.

“She was actually very robust—the strongest of the herd, genetically and overall. This would have been her third [calf],” Beach shared with The Epoch Times during a visit to his ranch in Chular, California, on February 17.

Following that, four stillborn goats were born.

“Every season is different,” Beach remarked. “However, when significant reproductive changes occur simultaneously across multiple herds and different species, it raises the question: what could cause this? I’ve never witnessed so many stillborns in a single season.”

As of now, Beach cannot confirm whether pollutants released during one of the largest battery storage fires in history affected his livestock. Nevertheless, like many other residents in the area who still experience health symptoms, despite assurances from authorities, he has lingering concerns.

The fire that erupted on January 16 at Vistra Energy’s Moss Landing facility, which houses 110,000 lithium-ion batteries for solar energy storage, produced a 1,000-foot smoke plume carrying a mix of airborne toxins that spiraled across the windy agricultural basin.

Firefighters, lacking a protocol for managing a lithium battery fire of this size, reported that they had to let it burn until it consumed its fuel source. Lithium batteries are pyrophoric, meaning they can ignite spontaneously upon contact with air or water, complicating efforts to extinguish them.

As the smoke dissipated and February rains arrived, officials continued to guarantee residents that there was no health risk, citing data from air, soil, and water monitoring.

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Unlike the fires that devastated Los Angeles County around the same time, there were no destroyed homes, no fatalities, and about 1,200 residents were briefly evacuated.

However, the Moss Landing incident left authorities scrambling.

During this time, government agencies and Vistra were slow to investigate for toxic compounds they understood could present exposure risks and have remained reticent regarding data from other sources that complicate the narrative they’ve communicated to the public.

An investigation by The Epoch Times revealed that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did not instruct Vistra to analyze air for heavy metals until nearly a week after the fire had begun, and that information was never disclosed to the public.

Without clear communication, residents are left uncertain about the safety of their children, their animals, their land.

“We’re in uncharted territory,” said Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church, a vocal critic of the regulatory failings that led to the fire and its aftermath.

“This isn’t something like a wildfire or flood, which we’re equipped for and know how to react to. Developing protocols is a necessity; unfortunately, this incident serves as a test case for that,” he commented to The Epoch Times.

Nevertheless, signs of risks were evident. The facility, commenced in 2020, utilized what is now regarded as outdated technology, designs for storage, and fire safety standards. This incident marked the fourth occurrence at the site since 2021, the third at the Vistra plant, which stands next to a facility managed by PG&E.

The decision to permit Vistra’s plant faced minimal opposition and was approved without an environmental impact report, a rarity for a project adjacent to a protected nature preserve. It marketed itself as a cleaner substitute for the natural gas facility it replaced, garnering broad approval from stakeholders often at odds, including industry, labor, and environmentalists.

However, when international fire safety standards were revised in 2018 and similar products recalled across the U.S., the company was not mandated to retrofit, upgrade, or comply. The state similarly did not compel the organization to file a safety plan in adherence to state law.

While many lawmakers in California readily condemn the oil industry and its practices following disasters, there has been muted outrage from Sacramento or Washington concerning Vistra’s apparent parallels…

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