San Diego County will not ban renewable energy battery storage, despite calls for immediate prohibitions from neighbors fearful of fires.
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors elected in a 4-1 vote to keep applications for new storage projects rolling despite a recent fire at an SDG&E facility last week and two others in the past few years. Instead, the county is counting on its fire department to come up with new rules for how far battery projects must be from residential areas.
Tony Mecham, unit chief of CAL FIRE in San Diego County, said he’s working with a consultant to come up with those technical standards, which could be added to the fire code. That’s a much quicker way than waiting for the Board of Supervisors to figure out where they’d allow batteries in their zoning rules, an estimated two-year process.
Republican Supervisor Jim Desmond was the lone voice calling for a ban, which garnered no support. An almost equal number of people spoke both for and against the potential ban. A fair portion of the opposition came from a private battery developer called AES, which is at loggerheads with some people in Escondido, where AES wants to build a 320-megawatt facility next to a smattering of ranch homes.
The other Republican, Supervisor Joel Anderson who sided with Democrats, noted that of the 30 large-scale battery storage sites in the county, only three were under the county’s jurisdiction. The rest belonged to utilities which are governed by the State Public Utilities Commision or CPUC.
Anderson said the county should become more involved in the commission’s battery siting process to protect the public.
“I get that the CPUC wants to build these but it’s no use if the county burns down.”
Four Mayors Weigh in on Homelessness
Last week, our Tigist Layne moderated a panel on homelessness with the mayors of Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas and San Marcos. In Wednesday’s North County Report, she highlighted their most interesting comments.
Several mayors voiced support for the idea of camping bans — though Oceanside’s mayor said she is wary of laws that criminalize homelessness.
The mayors also weighed in on substance abuse and mental health treatment, as well as the housing first policy.
Carlsbad’s mayor said that it is hard to get some homeless people the help they need. But he added that some “don’t want to give up their meth for a house.”
Read the North County Report here.
He’s Seen Enough
On Election Night, when everyone is waiting impatiently to see which direction a state has gone or how a key Senate or congressional race turned out, the most plugged-in people know it’s over when they hear one thing: Dave Wasserman saying, “I’ve seen enough.”
Wasserman, one of the best election forecasters and analysts, is coming to Politifest for a special review of the national race, key states and critical voting trends.
Get excited and get your tickets to Politifest here. We’re only 15 days away!
In Other News
- In a new op-ed for Voice, two advocates write that batter storage technology is safe and necessary for San Diego’s clean energy future. Read it here.
- A plan for a 20-unit apartment building in Ocean Beach has been shut down. A developer had planned to use one of the city’s “density bonus” incentives to build the project, but a group of residents successfully blocked it, arguing the density bonus rule was not being used appropriately. (Union-Tribune)
- Wildfires in surrounding counties have led to air quality alerts and ash raining down in some northern parts of San Diego County. (FOX 5 & KUSI)
- The state has suspended a residential rehabilitation program operated by Veterans Village of San Diego. After several deaths leading up to 2022, the state had been monitoring Veterans Village. More people died in 2023 and 2024 and now the state is moving to take away Veterans Village’s license. (U-T)
The Morning Report was written by MacKenzie Elmer and Will Huntsberry. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.