Moss Landing Battery Energy Storage System Fire, Sept. 18, 2026.
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Moss Landing Battery Energy Storage System Fire, Sept. 18, 2026.
Do you know Hammurabi's Codes? The Babylonian king wrote them around 1750 B.C.E. to protect people from new technologies' hazards and to hold a builder liable if their project caused harm. More famously, he also called for "an eye for an eye." Hammurabi's codes are still relevant: before any bridge, building, highway, water treatment facility, electrical system, smart meter, smart phone, cell site, solar PV system, wind facility, battery energy storage system, EV charger, data center (etcetera) goes live, the builder must ensure that the technology will not imperil life, health or property.
Like every engineer, every public utility commissioner, every FCC and FDA reviewer, every technology user should assume that no device or tool or infrastructure is safe until proven safe.
Alas. While corporate projects develop with unprecedented speed and scale, local and federal agencies-- designed to evaluate and monitor hazards and enforce safety regulations-- increasingly do not protect the public sufficiently. This leaves ordinary citizens (with significantly limited resources) tasked to discover and prevent potentially hazardous consequences of massive, complex projects-- like battery energy storage systems (BESS) or data centers.
I usually focus on electricity, electronics, telecommunications, Internet access. But public land use, drilling and mining; food, pesticides and pharmaceuticals; worker safety; and aeronotics also depend on reviewed, monitored and enforced regulatory protections.
Corporations tend not to like regulations, because they slow projects (and profits) down.
For the last century, independent, state-licensed, liability-carrying professional engineers (PEs) evaluate and mitigate hazards of new technologies or building projects to "prove" their safety. If a PE certifies that a project's design is good to go-- and the building collapses or catches fire because of its design, the PE is liable. If a builder does not follow correct design, the builder holds liability.
Utilities provide what modern society considers essential services: electricity, natural gas, water, waste disposal, wired landlines, mobile phones and the Internet. PUCs protect consumers, including when utility-monopolies provide infrastructure without competition. PUCs obligate corporations to provide nondiscriminatory access, affordability, reliable service, safety and fair handling of consumer rights.
PUC commissioners, city councilors and county commissioners should not permit a new project until PE-certified documents prove that the project will not imperil life, health or property.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established under President Nixon in 1969 to ensure that all Americans have clean air, land and water; that contaminated lands and toxic sites are cleaned up and revitalized; that federal laws protecting public health and the environment are fairly and effectively enforced.
What happens when projects are permitted without proof of safety? When they're not sufficiently monitored after they're built?
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