Apparently, “woke” is anything counter to “traditional American values”, like Washington chopping down a cherry tree.
“The Defense Intelligence Agency is working with the Department of Defense to fully implement all Executive Orders and Administration guidance in a timely manner,”
The affected events, per the memo, which is dated Jan. 28, 2025, include: Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Holocaust Day and Days of Remembrance, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Pride, Juneteenth, Women’s Equality Day, National Hispanic Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month and National American Indian Heritage Month.
Funny. I don’t see Saint Patrick’s Day on the list of banned observances.
The same facility, off state Highway 1 and Dolan Road, was the site of a massive fire in January, prompting evacuations because of unknown hazards posed by the smoke…
The message said the fire did not appear to be burning undamaged batteries still at the site that had not burned during that fire…
Earlier this month, Moss Landing residents filed a lawsuit against both Vistra and PG&E over the January fire. The suit accuses Vistra of failing to take safety measures and complying with updated safety standards while claiming PG&E is responsible for the design of the facility.
The problem is lithium. The good news is that the industry is working hard to replace lithium. Sodium and aluminum, both abundant, are two prime candidates. The high demand for electricity storage is funding the research and development of better, safer, and cheaper batteries.
Sodium and aluminum batteries, being safer, have secondary effects, reducing the complexity of battery management, temperature and charging. All this points to end of life for ICE.
Although without waiting for safer batteries, current BESS will then need to be replaced, thus doubling the up-front costs. I think dense urban areas such as NYC should move carefully with this technology.
Goofy, of course they have. As noted upthread, we now have an additional source – refineries and giant batteries exploding and burning. As you noted in the thread title, “this is not good, very bad, very bad indeed”.
So why focus on battery fires if fossil fuel plants are not safer? One reason to focus on eliminating fossil fuels is that they are dangerous in other ways. From the University of Texas.
No human should want to live near a coal plant.
You argue that this battery fire means that “I think dense urban areas such as NYC should move carefully with this technology.” Do you say the same with natural gas technology?
This is the third fire at Moss Landing. There have been similar incidents in recent years . Fires occurred at the plant in 2021 and 2022, both involving the battery storage system. After those events, the plant underwent safety upgrades to prevent future problems.
You are hyperventilating over this one facility fires. The Moss Landing facility was an early design which did not provide adequate spacing between batteries. The battery industry has improved the designs of battery power facilities which are now located in many pats of the country like Texas, Florida, and many others. Here is an article with 2023 data on battery farms. I do not hear about fires at those facilities.
Not really a great need. 99% of lead acid batteries are recycled, making it the single most recycled product in the country.
Even though modestly profitable, it was mostly hit or miss in the first half of the 20th century with small smelters and junkyards doing a fraction of what became possible when environmental regulations came about, requiring battery retailers to accept used batteries. Once that happened the industry grew out of the shadows into a highly profitable, well controlled, regulated industry that works for both business and consumers.
If we could only convince people that doing the same thing with glass bottles was a good idea.
And we have highly toxic lead (no safe exposure) everywhere. If we believe that why do we continue to distribute lead widely into every garage. And probably into every landfill.
