Proposed Battery Energy Health & Safety Ordin. Needs Answers from PUC w Never Again Moss Landing, CA

"I'm Ed Mitchell, a co-founder Never Again Moss Landing.

We're coming here today to compliment each of you supervisors regarding generating a battery energy health and safety ordinance.

Supervisor Church, you were the first to step forward and said that this disaster at Moss Landing was a 'Three Mile Island' event, recognizing that the size from an energy source was putting out dangerous impacts upon the community. Thank you.

Supervisors Askew and Daniels, you both a number of times have asked the entities to come before this body for lessons learned and you've been given no answers by some like the EPA.

Supervisor Alejo, you last month mentioned that you were the first to step forward, mentioned that there were difficulties with this storage process or words to that effect. Thank you, sir, for standing up and doing that.

Supervisor Lopez, you've helped guide this very expertly, I think, this body to try to move forward and come to solutions. One example is getting and accepting that the board will do within one year an ordinance. Thank you for doing that.

Now, however, critical information is needed from the California PUC to help the county write an effective ordinance.

You need to know what were the causes for the fire and the failure of the suppression system. What lessons learned have they used? And are there any ordinance drafted ordinance that they're planning to bring forward?

Because if you don't have that information, you can't be approving another BESS operations. Working cooperatively with the PUC is needed.

We recommend in some formal way you pass information to them that the public for sure has brought forward: pictures and other evidence that there are difficulties.

Please take that action. Thank you for your work."

County Board Chambers
Salinas, CA
December 9, 2025