By Jondi Gumz
On Jan. 23, a week after the Vistra lithium battery storage plant fire in Moss Landing, Assemblymember Dawn Addis said she has introduced legislation to restore permitting for lithium battery storage to local communities.
“We believe deeply in the importance of the local community to have a voice in the process,” she said.
The bill, AB 303, would eliminate the state streamlining of lithium battery energy storage, systems (known as BESS) allowed by AB 205.
AB 205 was a budget trailer bill passed 64-13 by the Assembly in 2022 to speed up “clean energy projects” as state legislators pushed toward a goal set in 2018: Zero-carbon electricity by 2045.
The word “lithium” never appeared in AB 205.
Addis said AB 303 also would set limits on where lithium battery storage could be located, with a 3,200-foot setback from environmentally sensitive areas, in high-fire, high-flood zones, in the Monterey Bay…
