Questioning lithium-ion batteries, fire risks & hydrating dry regions
While finishing this Substack, I learned about the explosive fire that started January 16, 2025 at Moss Landing, California’s Vistra Power Plant, the world’s largest battery energy storage facility, housing tens of thousands of lithium-ion batteries. By Friday, January 17, flames had consumed 75% of the facility’s batteries. Toxic fumes from the batteries’ chemicals forced evacuations and closed roads around Moss Landing. Because the highly-charged batteries can’t be extinguished—they must burn out—this fire and its toxins could burn for a long time.
Batteries’ toxic gases can cause respiratory, skin and eye problems. Toxic gases from burning lithium-ion batteries can contaminate wildlife such as Monterey Bay’s unique tidal wetland.
This is the fourth fire at the Moss Landing battery storage facility.
Referring to last week’s explosive fire, County Supervisor Glenn Church said, “This is a wake-up call for the industry. If we’re going to move ahead with sustainable energy, we need a safe battery system in place. State of the art safety protocols did not work.”
County officials lifted evacuation orders Friday evening after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found “no threat to human health.” Still, Highway 1 remains closed, and health officials in Monterey, San Venito and Santa Cruz counties advise residents to stay indoors, turn off ventilation systems and limit outdoor exposure. Www.ksbw.com provides live updates.
WILDFIRES AND URBAN FIRES
When the Los Angeles fires started January 7, I learned about the differences between wild and urban fires. Wildfires occur in forests or grasslands, fueled by trees or other vegetation. More than 80% of wildfires start by human activities like abandoned cigarettes, campfires and barbeques. Wildfire smoke can penetrate deep into peoples’ lungs and aggravate heart and lung diseases.
Urban fires—conflagrations—are fueled by combustible construction materials including wood framing, plastics, metals, furniture fabric and solar panels (hazardous waste). Because of houses’ flammable contents, urban fires burn extremely hot and generate toxic emissions. High winds and insufficient water supply intensify urban fires. Burning houses emit chemical toxins and generate more heat than burning trees (which, if alive, hold fire-resistant moisture).
While powerlines and transformers are designed to withstand wind speeds up to 56mph, some gusts in the LA fires exceeded 100mph.
INCLUDING LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES IN FIRE RISK ASSESSMENTS
Here’s a question: How do lithium-ion batteries contribute to urban fires?
Like much of the world, Southern California is now dotted with lithium batteries at every telecom cell site (for backup in the event of a power outage); in every electric vehicle, e-bike and hoverboard; in every EV charger; in laptops, tablets and smartphones—and their chargers; in smart utility meters on grid-connected houses and buildings; in off-grid rooftop solar PV systems’ batteries; in battery energy storage systems (BESS) for large-scale solar facilities and wind facilities.
That’s a lot of lithium-ion batteries.
If a lithium-ion battery’s chemicals heat up and can’t cool down, the battery can catch fire, explode and release toxic, flammable gases such as fluoride. Like trick birthday candles, EV batteries (holding energy to burn for as much as 24 hours) can re-ignite. Lithium-ion batteries’ temperature can quickly reach 932 degrees Fahrenheit (500 degrees Celsius). They can burn as high as 2200F (1100C). An EV fire burns at 5,000 degrees F (2,760 C). A gas-powered vehicle fire burns at 1,500 F (815C).
Because of the increase and severity of battery storage systems’ explosions and fires, The National Fire Protection Association is considering an update to its Battery Safety Code. These systems should be designed to prevent explosions—not just fires.
RECOGNIZING THE FIRE RISKS CAUSED BY DRY AND COVERED SOIL
LA has endured eight months without rain. Drought increases fire risk.
Do fire risks also increase when soil can’t absorb and hold water? Soil’s ability to absorb and hold water is one of the Earth’s main cooling mechanisms. How do we reconcile this when we’ve covered land with paved roads, houses, malls, parking lots, data centers and battery storage facilities?
How can we re-hydrate a dry region?
REBUILDING QUESTIONS
When rebuilding, what policies will ensure that fire’s toxic emissions (to air, soil and groundwater) will not affect future residents and farmers? Given that Governor Newsom has suspended environmental reviews to speed rebuilding in wildfire zones, what will protect residents in rebuilt areas from toxic exposures?
What materials and practices prevent new fires?
What measures would prevent lithium-ion batteries (at cell sites, in electric vehicles, smart meters, laptops, tablets, smartphones, rooftop solar system batteries, etc.) from catching fire and exploding? Could we prohibit lithium-ion batteries until they’re proven safe and ecologically sound from cradle-to-grave? New Hampshire legislators have introduced an ACT that would allow towns to decline 5G cell sites.
How could rebuilding Los Angeles respect the Earth? To reduce fire risk, support healthy water cycling and increase locally-produced food, could rebuilding policies encourage healthy soil structure?
For inspired building, see Mully (about a Kenyan who has fed, housed and educated 27,000+ orphans and turned dry dirt into an oasis); The Power of Community (about Cuba after the USSR quit supplying it with oil, overnight, in 1989); and Alpha Lo & Didi Pershouse speaking about rehydrating Los Angeles.
To provide much-needed affordable housing in LA and elsewhere, would any mansion-owners turn their homes into multiple-family units?
RECONSIDER “SUSTAINABILITY”
Many communities and corporations aim to sustain themselves by installing battery energy storage systems and solar facilities. According to the California Energy Commission, since 2020, battery storage in the state has increased sevenfold—from 1,474 megawatts in 2020 to 10,383 megawatts by mid-2024. One megawatt can power 750 homes.
In New Mexico, AES Corporation has proposed building a 96 MW, 700-acre solar facility with 45 MWs/39 battery containers in Santa Fe County. (Each battery is about 39’ x 10’ x 8’.) Santa Fe’s Green Chamber of Commerce, the Sierra Club’s Rio Grande Chapter, the Global Warming Express and 350 Santa Fe support AES’s project.
Opponents of AES’s facility include the San Marcos Association, the Clean Energy Coalition and Ashley Schannauer (formerly a hearing officer for the state’s Public Regulatory Commission).
I frequently hear people call battery storage, solar PVs, industrial wind and EVs “sustainable.” Looked at from their cradles to their graves, this is simply not true. Mining lithium ravages ecosystems. So does burning coal and trees to make solar panels’ silicon. Refining lithium and making silicon electrically-conductive takes millions of gallons of water, daily. At end-of-life, these technologies are hazardous waste.
Meanwhile, I have many friends with rooftop solar systems and EVs. I would welcome forums about reducing our overall use of energy, water, extractions and international supply chains. I would welcome learning how to live with less.
As survivors of the LA fires, battery fires, Hurricane Helene, Israel’s decimation of Gaza and other catastrophes rebuild, what would communities look like if we considered our technologies’ impacts to ecosystems and public health from their cradles to graves? What would our communities look like if we think, “Ecosystems and public health first?”
BUY ME A MONTHLY CUP OF TEA & HELP KEEP THIS SUBSTACK ALIVE
FOR MORE INFO:
Jeff Gibbs and Michael Moore’s documentary, “Planet of the Humans”
Julia Barnes’ film, “Bright Green Lies”
https://www.watchduty.org
alerts and monitors wildfires in the American West.
https://mutualaidla.org/
lists mutual aid organizations.
Science and the California Wildfires with George Wuerthner
New Mexicans for Responsible Renewables supports New Mexico’s avoiding unnecessary risks to our communities and further destruction to our environment.
THE POWER GRID
Discovering Power’s Traps: a primer for electricity users
Fire hazards at the battery storage system coming near you
SOS: San Onofre Syndrome: Nuclear Power’s Legacy Note: The documentary starts 2025 with screenings around California, Eugene, Madrid and on Amazon Prime. See also “Risks of geologic disposal of weapons plutonium.”
A Time-Sensitive Invitation to Protect New Mexico from Smart Meters’ Fire Hazards
SOLAR PVs
21 questions for solar PV explorers
Do I report what I’ve learned about solar PVs—or live with it privately?
E-VEHICLES
How/can we protect the Earth when we need a car?
Who’s in charge of EV chargers?
When Land I Love Holds Lithium: Max Wilbert on Thacker Pass, Nevada
Anyone with 2 brain cells would know that 'NET ZERO' is an utterly insane off the charts idiocy, an absolute mathematical, physical, statistical and practical impossibility that can never be achieved or exist in reality!
Electricity has to come from somewhere, and the only reliable sources are coal, oil and gas (nukes don't cut it, the radioactive waste is too poisonous).
The 'CLIMATE CHAOS' fraud is the excuse and propaganda misdirection justifying attacks on farming and food, concealing a profoundly inimical globalist genocidal enslavement scheme.
Do you want to live in the squalor and drudgery and misery of the pre-industrial age? HELL NO!
HANDS OFF MY GAS STOVE! I LOVE MY GAS STOVE! Ever try to cook on an electric stove - absolute nightmare!
Can't say this often enough! CLIMATE CHANGE IS AN EVEN WORSE FRAUD THAN THE PLANSCAMDEMIC! SO-CALLED GREEN TECH IS A GIGANTIC SCAM! MINING AND MANUFACTURING 'GREEN' PRODUCTS NEEDS COAL, GAS AND OIL AND MINING RARE MINERALS IS MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY TOXIC AND DESTRUCTIVE THAN LEGACY PRODUCTS. SCREW YOUR DAMNED GREEN GRIFT AGENDA! https://climateviewer.com
All life on earth is being assaulted by THE TECHNOCRATIC OMNIWAR! RESIST! DO NOT CONSENT TO ALL THINGS DIGITAL, 'SMART', AI, 5G, NO CASH - ALL OF IT! dhughes.substack.com Technocrat ruling class psychos get a sadistic thrill from their powers over life and death and hurting all who stand in their way and they need the resources worldwide to build their digital total slavery control grids (herd survivors into 15 minute city digital prisons)!
AI is designed to be anti-human/anti-life programmed by technocrat control freak psychos - garbage in = garbage out. Everyone got along just fine without all these absurd and downright satanic electronic gadgets that did not exist until recently. NOBODY NEEDS THIS AI CRAP!
It's always since the dawn of history, been about using knowledge for power and control by the psycho portion of the human population that learned how to manipulate 'normies' to obey them in their power-mad power trips. Gates is one of the worst of the worst of these crazies!
In these modern times, this evil has become TECHNOCRACY, the vilest threat to the existence of all life on earth since forever!
EW! GROSS! HELL NO! https://www.technocracy.news
NOT MY BRAIN/MIND! NOT MY BODY! NO WAY, NO HOW, NOT PLAYING YOUR AI QUANTUM STUPID-ASS VIDEO GAMES! I AM LIVING IN THE REAL WORLD CREATING ART AND PERFORMANCES!
The more I learn about this stuff, the more sickened, nauseated and horrified I get, and I wonder what kind of inhuman psychopath loonies make this crap and want to use it!?
THIS IS PURE SATANIC EVIL! IT IS MEANT TO DESTROY BILLIONS OF YEARS OF CREATION IN THE ATTEMPT OF TOTAL SLAVERY CONTROL BY POWER-MAD PSYCHOS!
I DO NOT COMPLY! NEVER HAVE, NEVER WILL! May more and more wake up and resist and cultivate their health.
There is a fate worse than death - I would rather die than be a robotized slave of technocratic overlords! This is my hill to die on!
I have a landline and a wired laptop and a wired monitor screen, all the tech anyone should ever want or need. I never had and refuse to ever have one of those infernal mobile devices that are designed to enslave you.
My loathing of AI and all things NANO and digital knows no bounds!
SCREW THE FEAR FAKERY! NO TRUSTING THE WEF RULING CLASS EVER!
Reiterating for the sake of newbies and to support this post.
I have no fear of 'germs' or 'viruses'. One of the best places to go for reality: https://virustruth.net
I try to live without fear! Fear is the mind-killer!
PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGNS BY POWERFUL, WEALTHY CRIMINALS WITH EVIL INTENT CAN CAUSE ALL KINDS OF HAVOC! QUESTION EVERYTHING!
And these, the criminals behind the NAC and all the other schemes will use hypochondria hysteria and 'climate' hysteria to propagandize the gullible 'sheeple' into complying with TOTAL ENSLAVEMENT which is what this is really about!
A vast majority of so-called leaders and Public 'Serpents' around the world have been bribed, blackmailed/coerced into serving the interests of their technocratic New World Ordure parasite masters and not We the People.
GREED is behind every evil assailing us in the world!
The demonic despots of Davos at it again! They are behind everything bad! At it for decades and cronies like The Rothschilds and the Black Nobility and The Khazarian Mafia have been plotting planetary domination for centuries! ALL BECAUSE OF AVARICE!
We the People must try harder to live by The Golden Rule, doing so would solve most problems!
THEY can't get rid of the 'useless eaters' fast enough! Mistakes were not made, it was always malice aforethought.
AUTISM TSUNAMI/SADS/TURBO CANCER/BIZARRE TERMINAL ILLNESSES: More tragic victims of the ruling parasite genocidal enslavement agenda, sacrificed on the altar of psychopathic greed and hatred of humanity.
Migrant/Entrant Invasion/Infrastructure Attacks - all part of the destructive plot to achieve total slavery!
Apoplectic livid rage hardly describes the intensity of emotions I have had and am having over what these malignant globalists are perpetrating!
There is no noxious crime that the evildoers desiring to lord it over us won't commit to maintain their stranglehold on power. A groundswell critical mass resistance to their murderous enslavement plans is needed urgently!
Creative performing arts, fine arts and literary arts are the best part of being human and the thing the globalist predator technocrat megalomaniac total slavery control freaks most want to destroy.
Too many 'sheeple' are brainwashed to blindly obey authority figures on the media or in daily life in corrupt system ruled by control freak psychopaths who use propaganda lies to enslave their subjects and they are dumbed down to be obedient by 'education' institutions. Fortunately I was raised to question everything. This transcends party lines. We need a system that punishes psychopaths and rewards compassion and sharing, we need a system that actually follows The Constitution in reality.
Kudos to KATIE SINGER's heroic efforts and success in the struggle. We the People must always be aware of the existential threats lurking behind this fight!
How I stick my thumb in the eyes of the grotesque billionaire bastards pushing their enslavement agenda and how I embrace being fully human.
Fighting the globalist predator technocrat psychopath megalomaniac TOTAL SLAVERY AGENDA one performance at a time!
Amazing Amy: Eccentric Yoga Entertainer!
As an entertainer, I have been devastated and practically destroyed by the closure of all performance venues and then when they reopened, because MY BODY, MY CHOICE - being made a total untermenschen pariah outcast in NAZI NIGHTMARE LAWLESS 'SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS' JAB CROW APARTHEID/DISCRIMINATION/SEGREGATION HELL NYC WHERE THE MAD/DRUNK WITH POWER TYRANT POLS DOUBLE DOWN ON THEIR ILLEGAL MANDATES. I am trapped here with zero financial resources to leave or do anything else about this 'wish I were dead' endless misery life has become. The tragic irony is that my SPREAD THE YOGA LOVE performances are all about health, miraculously overcoming age (69) and injury to achieve feats of flexibility few can attain at any age. So BIG PHARMA who wants to addict every person on the planet to their toxic products hate people like me who prove that we do not need them if we eat healthy organic food and exercise daily!
https://www.reverbnation.com/artist/amazingamycontortionistuniqueyogadancer
I try and live and embody the creative performing artistic world and life I so fervently want existence to be about.
They can stick their f*cking damned NANO, Digital IDs, AI, jabs and chips up their asses where the sun don't shine!
All manner of lies and propaganda spew forth from the upper echelons in governments worldwide who are completely intertwined with the global criminal ruling class that wants to commit the worst atrocities imaginable and suffer no consequences. And their corruption slithers down the chain of command creating petty tyrants everywhere.
We the People are facing HORRIFYING TECHNOCRATIC PSYCHOPATHY TO DESTROY HUMANITY AND ALL NATURAL LIFE!
It was NEVER about health! The Powers That Should Not Be were ALWAYS about they want you DEAD or a SLAVE! This is a painful truth to accept but we the people must wake up and fight back!
We must never lose sight of the larger picture of the vile malignance we are fighting against.
There is an insidious global ruling class plot to enslave all life on earth behind all the madness and suffering inflicted on We the People.
How to fight back against this TOTAL SLAVERY!
RESIST! DO NOT COMPLY! DITCH THE DAMNED 'SMART' PHONES AND THE DAMNED QR CODES AND GO BACK TO LANDLINES OR FLIP PHONES AND USE CASH AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE! INSIST ON CASH! CBDC IS TOTAL SLAVERY!
Other than getting rid of nuclear weapons which I support 100% the rest of the anti-nuclear peace movement and CLIMATE CRISIS propaganda is parroting UN utter GARBAGE, a complete surrender to the ENSLAVEMENT AGENDA by the diabolical despots of Davos - ruling class criminals who lust for total power and control and all of whom should be tried and jailed for life and their malign organizations dismantled: the UN, the WEF, the IMF, the WHO, the BIS, NATO, Blackrock, Vanguard, The Rockefellers, the Rothschilds, The Bilderbergers, the CFR et al.
Very informative article Katie! Thank you!