A fire broke out at a battery energy storage system site in Warwick, N.Y., on Dec. 19.
It was the second time that this particular BESS site has erupted in flames since 2023.
It was the third BESS-related fire in that town since that time.
A fire also broke out earlier this year at the largest BESS site in the world, at Moss Landing in California.
In other words, this is no fluke: these BESS sites are inherently dangerous and have the potential to hurt people.
What else has to happen before Gov. Kathy Hochuyl and New York City officials get the message?
The Warwick and Moss Landing fires both led to evacuations in those towns. The fires burned for days, spewing toxic smoke other both communities.
BESS fires can’t be extinguished by traditional firefighting methods. The lithium-ion blazes generally have to be left to burn out on their own.
But firefighters and other emergency personnel must still respond to the fires at these sites. That puts all of them, as well as anybody who lives in the area, at risk.
Even when BESS sites operate normally, we don’t know the full extent of the health and environmental impacts that they could have on surrounding people and property.
These BESS sites also have a shelf life. What happens to the facilities after they’ve outlived their usefulness? What toxins might be left behind to be remediated?
Your guess is as good as mine.
At least the BESS site in Warwick isn’t smack in the center of the town’s business district or in a residential neighborhood.
Here in New York City, crazy City of Yes regulations passed under soon-to-be-former Mayor Eric Adams insanely allow BESS sites to be built in residential communities and next to mom-and-pop stores in Main Street-style shopping areas.
One of these BESS sites could be built directly next to your house and you’d have no way of stopping it.
You likely wouldn’t even know it’s coming until the BESS site is actually under construction because there’s no law that says that you, as a homeowner with vested interest in the value of your property, have to be notified about it.
City of Yes also significantly loosened the regulations when it comes to how big these BESS sites can be before requiring a special permit, even in manufacturing or industrial zones.
We’ve been placed in this danger because of the Democrats’ hysterical green policies, where Hochul and the rest have told us we must have have these energy storage sites in order to meet residential electrification goals that most reasonable people agreed were ridiculous and unattainable from the start.
But Democrats have to bend the knee to green activists and climate-conscious Zoomers, so there you have it.
New York has backed off on some of those electrification goals, but the BESS sites are still coming, including several to Staten Island.
Construction of all BESS sites should be halted until the true danger these sites pose can be determined.
City regulations also must be changed so that these BESS sites can no longer be built in residential neighborhoods.
Until then, New Yorkers simply are not safe.