Latest news with #Vistra-owned
Los Angeles Times
5 days ago
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
PG&E tried to restart a battery plant over Monterey County officials' objections. It lasted less than a day
When a massive fire ignited in January at one of the world's largest lithium-ion battery storage facilities, the neighbors demanded answers. They wanted to know what started the fire that smoldered for days, spewing toxic gas into the air and prompting evacuation warnings for 1,500 people. Nearly five months later and with the fire's cause still unknown, Pacific Gas & Electric began reopening an adjacent battery site on Sunday, despite objections from local officials. But the restart — which the utility company said was needed in order to meet summer energy demands — was called off almost as soon as it began. On Sunday, workers who 'began methodically returning the batteries to service' discovered 'a clamp failure and coolant leak' in a Tesla Megapack battery unit on site, PG&E spokesman Paul Doherty said in a statement Monday. 'Out of an abundance of caution we are deferring the facility's return to service until a later date,' Doherty said. The situation in Moss Landing highlights some of the underlying tensions of California becoming more reliant upon renewable energy, electric vehicles and battery-powered devices. State officials have aggressively pushed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by switching to clean energy sources. But the Vistra blaze has prompted calls for additional safety regulations around battery storage — as well as more local control over where storage sites are located. The Elkhorn facility — which is owned by PG&E and maintained by both the utility company and Tesla — is one of two adjacent battery energy storage systems at the Moss Landing power complex near Monterey Bay. The other is owned by Texas-based Vistra Corp. The batteries store excess energy generated during the day and release it into the power grid during times of high demand, including evening hours. Both facilities have been offline since Jan. 16, when a Vistra-owned building containing 99,000 LG battery modules caught fire. The Elkhorn site includes 256 stationary Tesla Megapacks — essentially shipping container-sized units filled with battery modules. The facility did not burn but automatically shut down when its safety equipment detected the fire in the Vistra building. PG&E announced last month that it planned to restart the Elkhorn facility by June 1 because, during the summer, 'that power is necessary to effectively manage the demands of the California power grid.' Tesla and the utility company, two PG&E vice presidents wrote in a letter to the county supervisors, 'performed extensive inspection and clean-up' at the Elkhorn site. After the discovery of problems at the Elkhorn facility Sunday, Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church, whose district includes Moss Landing, called it 'a good sign' that PG&E quickly paused the restart. But, he said, he still wants the utility company to wait until the fire investigations are complete to try again. 'That PG&E encountered problems as they recharged their batteries points out the volatility of this technology,' Church told The Times in an email Monday night. In a survey of nearby residents conducted by the Monterey and Santa Cruz county health departments, 83% of respondents said they experienced at least one symptom — most commonly headaches, sore throats and coughing — shortly after the fire. Nearly a quarter of respondents said they had trouble breathing, and 39% reported having a metallic taste in their mouth. The survey, conducted in February and March, was completed by 1,539 people who lived or worked in the region at the time of the fire. The results were released Monday. Jim says, 'Always tell the truth and you never have to remember what you said.'Lisa says, ''Things always look better in the morning.' My dad was a realistic pessimist so this was solid advice coming from him and, over the years, it's proved to be true in my own life.' Email us at essentialcalifornia@ and your response might appear in the newsletter this week. Today's great photo is from Times photographer Gina Ferazzi at a Riverside track field with Abi, a transgender high school athlete who navigates a fight she never asked for. Hailey Branson-Potts, staff writerKevinisha Walker, multiplatform editorAndrew Campa, Sunday writerKarim Doumar, head of newsletters How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@ Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
PG&E plans to reopen lithium battery plant near Monterey County site burned in toxic fire
Four months after a massive fire ignited in Monterey County at one of the world's largest lithium-ion battery storage facilities, Pacific Gas & Electric said it intends to reactivate an adjacent battery site by June to meet summer energy demands. The plan comes over the objections of county officials who requested that both facilities remain offline until the cause of the January fire in rural Moss Landing is determined. "I had hoped that PG&E would take a more transparent and collaborative approach in addressing the concerns of our surrounding communities, which are still grappling with the fallout of the largest BESS [battery energy storage system] fire in history," Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church wrote on Facebook on May 8. "Restarting operations before investigations are complete and before stronger emergency protocols are in place is disappointing and deeply troubling," he said. The PG&E facility is one of two battery energy storage systems at the Moss Landing power complex near Monterey Bay. The other is owned by Texas-based Vistra Corp. The batteries store excess energy generated during the day and release it into the power grid during times of high demand, including evening hours. Both facilities have been offline since Jan. 16, when a Vistra-owned building containing 99,000 LG battery modules caught fire, spewing toxic gases into the air and prompting the evacuation of some 1,500 people. The adjacent Elkhorn Battery Energy Storage Facility — which is owned by PG&E and maintained by both the utility company and Tesla — did not burn. But it automatically shut down when its safety equipment detected the fire in the Vistra building. The Elkhorn energy storage facility includes 256 stationary Tesla Megapacks — essentially shipping container-sized units filled with battery modules. The Megapacks, according to PG&E, stand on 33 concrete slaps at the Elkhorn facility. In a May 7 letter to Chris Lopez, chairman of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, PG&E vice presidents Dave Gabbard and Teresa Alvarado said "Tesla and PG&E have performed extensive inspection and clean-up" at the Elkhorn Facility and intend to restart it by June 1. After the fire, each of the Megapacks was disassembled and vacuum-cleaned, and environmental monitoring was conducted on and around the site, Gabbard and Alvarado wrote. "The Elkhorn Facility, as constructed, allows for efficient storage and use of power," they wrote. "As summer approaches, that power is necessary to effectively manage the demands of the California power grid and to protect PG&E's customers from power limitations and related impacts." A PG&E statement provided to The Times said: "We understand that the safety and well-being of our community is of utmost importance." The battery facility, the statement reads, provides "cost savings for electric customers" and helps "support the state's decarbonization goals." In his May 8 Facebook post, Church, whose district includes Moss Landing, wrote that the Board of Supervisors on Jan. 22 sent a letter to PG&E and Vistra requesting that their facilities not return to operation until 'the cause of the Vistra fire, as well as a previous fire at the PG&E battery storage facility, are determined and appropriately addressed.' Read more: 'Horrifying' fire at California lithium battery plant sparks calls for new clean energy rules That letter, he wrote, also requested that both companies develop "robust emergency response plans — based on a 'catastrophic worst-case scenario' involving full facility conflagration" for the county and other relevant agencies to review. Although emergency response plans are required by law, he added, existing state standards "are limited in scope and do not provide the level of detail or realism" that county officials needed to ensure public safety. "In previous discussions, PG&E indicated that a return to service would not occur until much later this year or beyond," Church wrote. County officials have "expressed concern" about the return to service and have reached out to facility operators to ensure emergency plans "adequately provide for the safety of the surrounding communities and the environment," Nick Pasculli, a Monterey County spokesman, said in a statement provided Thursday. "At this time, however, the County feels it is prudent to encourage PG&E to delay reactivation and continue to engage in additional open, transparent dialogue with County officials, first responders, and the residents we collectively serve," the statement reads. According to a Vistra website detailing the aftermath of the fire, an internal investigation is ongoing, and the cause of the blaze "remains unknown." A California Public Utilities Commission investigation into the blaze also is ongoing, Terrie Prosper, a spokesperson for the regulatory agency, told The Times. Vistra's battery energy storage system stands on the old site of the Moss Landing Power Plant, a gas-powered facility — originally built and operated by PG&E — whose twin smokestacks have towered over the region since 1950. Vistra acquired the plant in 2018 and demolished it to make way for the battery facilities, leaving the iconic smokestacks behind. In a February statement, PG&E noted that the Vistra facilities are 'located adjacent to — but walled off and separate from — PG&E's Moss Landing electric substation." In September 2022, a fire ignited in a single Tesla Megapack at PG&E's Elkhorn facility, five months after the battery energy storage system came online. The blaze, monitored by first responders, was allowed to burn itself out and had visible flames for about six hours, according to an investigation report by Energy Safety Response Group, an independent consulting firm. PG&E, in its letter this month to the county, said the cause of that fire was water that had entered the Megapack "due to the improper installation of deflagration vent shield panels." Tesla made fixes to all 256 Megapacks after the blaze, the utility company wrote. The longer, more destructive Vistra fire this year cast a pall over the clean energy industry in California, which in recent years has become more reliant upon renewable energy, electric vehicles and other battery-powered devices as state officials push to dramatically reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. The Vistra blaze prompted calls for additional safety regulations around battery storage, as well as more local control over where storage sites are located. Firefighters allowed the Vistra blaze to burn itself out, citing the dangers of dousing lithium-ion battery fires with water, which can cause dangerous chemical reactions. The fire, contained to a single building, smoldered for several days in mid-January. Read more: 'Extremely disturbing': High levels of heavy metals at Monterey estuary after lithium battery site fire In late January, scientists at San José State University recorded a dramatic increase in nickel, manganese and cobalt — materials used in lithium-ion batteries — in soil samples at the Elkhorn Slough Reserve, a nearby estuary that is home to several endangered species. The damaged Vistra building — filled with both burned and unaffected lithium-ion batteries — remained volatile. On Feb. 18, the fire reignited and burned for several hours. Vistra wrote on its website that "additional instances of smoke and flare-ups are a possibility given the nature of this situation and the damage to the batteries." "Since the January 16 fire, Vistra has brought in a private professional fire brigade that is onsite 24/7 to monitor the Moss 300 building," the company wrote. Read more: Residents sue energy companies after massive toxic battery fire at Moss Landing That structure, a former turbine building, contained a 300-megawatt system made up of about 4,500 cabinets, with each containing 22 individual battery modules, Meranda Cohn, a Vistra spokesperson, told The Times in an email. Of the 99,000 individual battery modules in the building, she said, about 54,450 burned. "Demolition on the Moss 300 building will begin once all batteries have been safely removed and discharged, and all debris (concrete, steel, piping) has been removed from the site," Cohn wrote. In February, four residents who live near the facility sued Vistra, PG&E and LG Energy Solution, accusing the companies of failing to maintain adequate fire safety systems. They alleged that they were exposed to toxic smoke emissions that caused nosebleeds, headaches, respiratory problems and other health issues. Environmental advocate Erin Brockovich is working with law firm Singleton Schreiber on the suit. Times staff writer Clara Harter contributed to this report. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
15-05-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
PG&E plans to reopen lithium battery plant near Monterey County site burned in toxic fire
Four months after a massive fire ignited in Monterey County at one of the world's largest lithium-ion battery storage facilities, Pacific Gas & Electric said it intends to reactivate an adjacent battery site by June to meet summer energy demands. The plan comes over the objections of county officials who requested that both facilities remain offline until the cause of the January fire in rural Moss Landing is determined. 'I had hoped that PG&E would take a more transparent and collaborative approach in addressing the concerns of our surrounding communities, which are still grappling with the fallout of the largest BESS [battery energy storage system] fire in history,' Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church wrote on Facebook on May 8. 'Restarting operations before investigations are complete and before stronger emergency protocols are in place is disappointing and deeply troubling,' he said. The PG&E facility is one of two battery energy storage systems at the Moss Landing power complex near Monterey Bay. The other is owned by Texas-based Vistra Corp. The batteries store excess energy generated during the day and release it into the power grid during times of high demand, including evening hours. Both facilities have been offline since Jan. 16, when a Vistra-owned building containing 99,000 LG battery modules caught fire, spewing toxic gases into the air and prompting the evacuation of some 1,500 people. The adjacent Elkhorn Battery Energy Storage Facility — which is owned by PG&E and maintained by both the utility company and Tesla — did not burn. But it automatically shut down when its safety equipment detected the fire in the Vistra building. The Elkhorn energy storage facility includes 256 stationary Tesla Megapacks — essentially shipping container-sized units filled with battery modules. The Megapacks, according to PG&E, stand on 33 concrete slaps at the Elkhorn facility. In a May 7 letter to Chris Lopez, chairman of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, PG&E vice presidents Dave Gabbard and Teresa Alvarado said 'Tesla and PG&E have performed extensive inspection and clean-up' at the Elkhorn Facility and intend to restart it by June 1. After the fire, each of the Megapacks was disassembled and vacuum-cleaned, and environmental monitoring was conducted on and around the site, Gabbard and Alvarado wrote. 'The Elkhorn Facility, as constructed, allows for efficient storage and use of power,' they wrote. 'As summer approaches, that power is necessary to effectively manage the demands of the California power grid and to protect PG&E's customers from power limitations and related impacts.' A PG&E statement provided to The Times said: 'We understand that the safety and well-being of our community is of utmost importance.' The battery facility, the statement reads, provides 'cost savings for electric customers' and helps 'support the state's decarbonization goals.' In his May 8 Facebook post, Church, whose district includes Moss Landing, wrote that the Board of Supervisors on Jan. 22 sent a letter to PG&E and Vistra requesting that their facilities not return to operation until 'the cause of the Vistra fire, as well as a previous fire at the PG&E battery storage facility, are determined and appropriately addressed.' That letter, he wrote, also requested that both companies develop 'robust emergency response plans — based on a 'catastrophic worst-case scenario' involving full facility conflagration' for the county and other relevant agencies to review. Although emergency response plans are required by law, he added, existing state standards 'are limited in scope and do not provide the level of detail or realism' that county officials needed to ensure public safety. 'In previous discussions, PG&E indicated that a return to service would not occur until much later this year or beyond,' Church wrote. County officials have 'expressed concern' about the return to service and have reached out to facility operators to ensure emergency plans 'adequately provide for the safety of the surrounding communities and the environment,' Nick Pasculli, a Monterey County spokesman, said in a statement provided Thursday. 'At this time, however, the County feels it is prudent to encourage PG&E to delay reactivation and continue to engage in additional open, transparent dialogue with County officials, first responders, and the residents we collectively serve,' the statement reads. According to a Vistra website detailing the aftermath of the fire, an internal investigation is ongoing, and the cause of the blaze 'remains unknown.' A California Public Utilities Commission investigation into the blaze also is ongoing, Terrie Prosper, a spokesperson for the regulatory agency, told The Times. Vistra's battery energy storage system stands on the old site of the Moss Landing Power Plant, a gas-powered facility — originally built and operated by PG&E — whose twin smokestacks have towered over the region since 1950. Vistra acquired the plant in 2018 and demolished it to make way for the battery facilities, leaving the iconic smokestacks behind. In a February statement, PG&E noted that the Vistra facilities are 'located adjacent to — but walled off and separate from — PG&E's Moss Landing electric substation.' In September 2022, a fire ignited in a single Tesla Megapack at PG&E's Elkhorn facility, five months after the battery energy storage system came online. The blaze, monitored by first responders, was allowed to burn itself out and had visible flames for about six hours, according to an investigation report by Energy Safety Response Group, an independent consulting firm. PG&E, in its letter this month to the county, said the cause of that fire was water that had entered the Megapack 'due to the improper installation of deflagration vent shield panels.' Tesla made fixes to all 256 Megapacks after the blaze, the utility company wrote. The longer, more destructive Vistra fire this year cast a pall over the clean energy industry in California, which in recent years has become more reliant upon renewable energy, electric vehicles and other battery-powered devices as state officials push to dramatically reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. The Vistra blaze prompted calls for additional safety regulations around battery storage, as well as more local control over where storage sites are located. Firefighters allowed the Vistra blaze to burn itself out, citing the dangers of dousing lithium-ion battery fires with water, which can cause dangerous chemical reactions. The fire, contained to a single building, smoldered for several days in mid-January. In late January, scientists at San José State University recorded a dramatic increase in nickel, manganese and cobalt — materials used in lithium-ion batteries — in soil samples at the Elkhorn Slough Reserve, a nearby estuary that is home to several endangered species. The damaged Vistra building — filled with both burned and unaffected lithium-ion batteries — remained volatile. On Feb. 18, the fire reignited and burned for several hours. Vistra wrote on its website that 'additional instances of smoke and flare-ups are a possibility given the nature of this situation and the damage to the batteries.' 'Since the January 16 fire, Vistra has brought in a private professional fire brigade that is onsite 24/7 to monitor the Moss 300 building,' the company wrote. That structure, a former turbine building, contained a 300-megawatt system made up of about 4,500 cabinets, with each containing 22 individual battery modules, Meranda Cohn, a Vistra spokesperson, told The Times in an email. Of the 99,000 individual battery modules in the building, she said, about 54,450 burned. 'Demolition on the Moss 300 building will begin once all batteries have been safely removed and discharged, and all debris (concrete, steel, piping) has been removed from the site,' Cohn wrote. In February, four residents who live near the facility sued Vistra, PG&E and LG Energy Solution, accusing the companies of failing to maintain adequate fire safety systems. They alleged that they were exposed to toxic smoke emissions that caused nosebleeds, headaches, respiratory problems and other health issues. Environmental advocate Erin Brockovich is working with law firm Singleton Schreiber on the suit. Times staff writer Clara Harter contributed to this report.
Politico
28-01-2025
- Business
- Politico
The fire at Moss Landing is holding its charge
With help from Blanca Begert and Tyler Katzenberger FRIENDLY FIRE: A California Democrat is using the playbook she developed against oil and gas drilling on one of her party's own darlings — the energy storage industry. When the world's largest lithium-ion battery caught fire Jan. 17 at the Vistra-owned Moss Landing Power Plant in Monterey County, Assemblymember Dawn Addis looked up at the 100-foot flames, considered her constituents who were told to evacuate and close their windows in case of toxic smoke, as well as the sensitive marsh and prime farmland nearby, and thought: Never again. She introduced a bill Thursday to reverse a 2022 reform that bypassed local governments to speed up state permits for energy storage facilities. Her proposal would also ban energy storage facilities from environmentally sensitive areas or from within 3,200 feet of schools and homes. 'After seeing what I saw at Moss Landing, it is very hard for me to look at battery energy storage as a green solution,' Addis said. 'The whole purpose of climate action is to create a safer world. And so as we move into that, we have a responsibility to ask the core questions that our community is asking for their safety, for their health and for their well being.' Part of her inspiration for the proposal was AB 3233, a bill she passed last year giving local governments more authority to restrict oil and gas drilling, she said. Another inspiration was SB 1137, the 2022 law putting a 3,200-foot setback on new oil and gas wells that took effect last year after the California Independent Petroleum Association dropped its effort to repeal it. The proposal reflects broader nationwide safety concerns with fire-prone lithium-ion batteries that have sparked local moratoriums, including just down the coast from Moss Landing in Morro Bay, where Vistra has proposed another battery facility. But it also flies in the face of California's recent strategy regarding renewable energy development, which has focused on streamlining and incentives. The result? Some of the fastest growth in energy storage in the world, as Gov. Gavin Newsom has bragged. The burst in batteries also helped California avoid rolling blackouts last summer by storing solar and wind power into the evening hours when there's highest demand. That's why Sen. John Laird, another Democrat who represents the Central Coast area where the fire took place, is calling Addis' bill 'premature and half-cooked.' Laird and Addis have both called for an independent investigation into the fire's cause and its impact on local soil, water and air. So far: U.S. EPA monitoring of the air right after the fire suggested no harmful impact, but a preliminary San Jose State University analysis of the soil in nearby Elkhorn Slough in the days after the fire found a spike in nickel, manganese and cobalt, which are heavy metals found in batteries. State and local environmental health monitoring is also in the works. Laird said he's considering follow-up legislation to his SB 38, a 2023 law requiring battery energy storage facilities to develop emergency plans, but said Addis' proposal goes too far too soon. 'With oil and gas, there are emissions and potential hazards at the site,' Laird said. 'For battery storage, there are no emissions, and so using the setbacks from oil and gas for battery storage is apples and oranges.' He also pointed to the broad need for energy storage as California tries to rid the grid of fossil fuels. California projects it will need 52,000 megawatts of energy storage, three times what it has now, by 2045 to meet energy needs while reaching its net-zero emissions goal. 'We don't need to cut off or hamper every individual power source on the grid,' Laird said. 'We need to have a unified plan for how we're going to keep our climate leadership and how we're going to keep the lights on, because that's the key thing going forward.' Seven projects are already taking advantage of the opt-in sped-up state permit Addis wants to eliminate, according to a list kept by the California Energy Commission. (Not yet on the list: Vistra's Morro Bay project, though the company has said it intends to apply.) Vistra didn't respond to a request for comment by publication time. But Scott Murtishaw, executive director of the trade group California Energy Storage Alliance, of which Vistra is a member, said he's working with the California Public Utilities Commission to come up with a list of older facilities to inspect and potentially update (in energy storage terms, older is more than a couple years old.) He said he wants to see California adopt the latest international fire safety codes for battery storage facilities instead of limiting where batteries can be placed. 'The industry has learned a lot since the late 2010s and 2020 era,' Murtishaw said. 'The facilities that are constructed going forward will just be using newer, better technologies, and will be designed with better, more stringent standards.' The CPUC proposed Monday evening to increase its safety standards for energy storage facilities, in line with recent state laws. It's scheduled to vote on the proposal March 13. — CvK Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here! FEMA FIRINGS: Right as President Donald Trump was pledging on Friday to give fire-scarred Los Angeles 'more than any president has ever given you, his Federal Emergency Management Agency was disbanding a Katrina-era advisory group intended to issue broad guidance on the agency's work. FEMA's National Advisory Council dismissed its 40 members in line with a Jan. 20 memo from the Department of Homeland Security cleaning house on all advisory committees in order to 'prioritize our national security.' The NAC had recently issued a slate of recommendations, including encouraging property insurers to incentivize climate-resilient infrastructure, issuing more preemptive emergency declarations for climate-driven events, and educating agency staff on 'victim-centered trauma-informed training.' One of the former committee members, UC Irvine assistant professor of environmental policy and urban planning Michael Mendez, said he would be taking his talents back to California. He cited two bills that state Sen. Steven Padilla (D-Chula Vista) passed last year: SB 990, requiring the Office of Emergency Services to incorporate best practices for serving LGBTQ+ people during emergencies and natural disasters; and SB 1105, granting paid sick leave protection to agricultural workers during smoke-, heat- or flooding-related emergencies. 'I'm going to focus my efforts on state and local-level disaster and equity planning,' he said. — DK FIREHOSE OF ORDERS: In case it wasn't already clear, Trump really, really cares about California's water supply. His White House on Sunday published its second executive order on California water so far, this time telling federal agencies to find ways to deliver more water to Southern California and the Central Valley including by setting aside endangered species protections and overriding California rules. The order partly justifies the demands by the devastation wrought by fires in Los Angeles. How much water Trump can actually deliver will depend on what exactly the agencies decide to do, as well as California's reaction. The Newsom administration is responding by saying that the state's water delivery system isn't to blame for the Los Angeles wildfires because state reservoirs were full. California officials are also pointing out that Trump's water policies from his first term wouldn't necessarily result in more water than the current status quo finalized late last year by the Newsom and Biden administrations. 'To abandon these new frameworks would harm California water users and protection of native fish species,' said Department of Water Resources director Karla Nemeth. — CvK MAKE POLLUTERS PAY INSURANCE: Suing Big Oil is back —– this time with an insurance twist. Sens. Scott Wiener and Sasha Renée Pérez introduced a first-in-the-nation bill today to create a clear legal pathway for individuals and insurance companies to seek damages from oil companies after climate-fueled fires like the ones that burned through Los Angeles this month. The Affordable Insurance and Climate Recovery Act, SB 222, would also require that the FAIR Plan, the state's insurer of last resort, sue fossil fuel companies on behalf of policyholders if an independent expert assessment finds the benefits of doing so outweigh the costs. 'By forcing the fossil fuel companies driving the climate crisis to pay their fair share, we can help stabilize our insurance market and make the victims of climate disasters whole,' said Wiener in a statement. The Western States Petroleum Association isn't into it. 'The announcement of today's proposal is the latest installment of an ongoing effort to scapegoat our industry — and the thousands of hardworking women and men who keep California running — for political gain,' CEO Catherine Reheis-Boyd said in a statement. — BB EXCEPTION EFFORT: Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula wants California to try new nuclear — but only in small bites. The Fresno Democrat introduced a bill late last week, AB 305, that would exempt small modular reactors from California's existing nuclear energy moratorium, which bars the construction of new nuclear reactors until the state is able to safely dispose of high-level nuclear waste. Arambula staffer Jacob Moss told POLITICO in a statement today that the Assemblymember was inspired to introduce the bill after visiting France, where he 'was impressed by their use of safe, modular nuclear power' and felt the technology could 'move the state to more affordable carbon-free electricity.' Unlike traditional nuclear power plants, small modular reactors, or SMRs, are built in factories and used to power buildings and other small-scale demands. Arambula's not the first to vouch for SMRs: A similar effort from former Assemblymember Devon Mathis died in the Assembly's Natural Resources Committee last year. — TK A TOUGH GIG: Ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft are now part of America's disaster response. But their drivers, classified as gig workers, are unprotected by state rules that safeguard other workers from wildfire smoke, reports Ariel Wittenberg for POLITICO's E&E News. Both apps offered Los Angeles residents free rides to evacuation shelters during the deadly wildfires that torched large areas of the city — about 10,000 rides each. But the drivers who venture into harm's way often have little gear — like masks — or training to protect themselves or their riders. The rights of gig workers were also weakened by a California ballot initiative that was upheld by the state Supreme Court last year. The result: Uber and Lyft are exempted from state wildfire smoke protections for workers — and the companies don't have to provide drivers with sick leave if they fall ill from inhaling wildfire smoke. Drivers also can't claim workers compensation if their lungs are irreparably harmed. A spokesperson for Uber said it was 'having ongoing conversations with drivers, couriers and merchants to listen to their needs to find the best way to support them.' Lyft did not respond to requests for comment. — AW, BB — Newsom told the California Coastal Commission to back off again today, three days after Trump was in Los Angeles railing against the agency. — Power stocks that had been boosted by the hype of artificial-intelligence are tumbling after the unveiling of the uber-competitive DeepSeek system. — Blanca went on AirTalk with Larry Mantle to talk about what Trump's executive orders mean for California's climate goals.
