Tuesday night, the City Council voted on a resolution to oppose the Seguro Lithium-ion Battery Energy Storage (BESS) project just east of San Elijo and Coronado Hills and south of the mobile home park near La Moree. The 23-acre site in Eden Valley proposes one of the largest battery energy facilities in the state and the only one of its size being proposed in a residential area. It is highly controversial given the multiple fires that have occurred at these facilities recently. These industrial-scale facilities are typically sited in industrial areas, so seeing one in a neighborhood is unprecedented. 4,500 people have signed the petition opposing it. www.stopseguro.org for more info.
The resolution was put forth by Deputy Mayor Jenkins and co-sponsored by Council Member Sannella. Reportedly, a San Elijo resident had reached out to Maria Nuñez earlier in the day and asked her what her thoughts were on the resolution. She stated that she didn’t have enough information to support it, but would wait until the council had a chance to discuss it.
Given the last-minute notice, there was a decent-sized group supporting the resolution (opposing the location of the proposed project). The speakers were heartfelt but also provided some technical background. One speaker, a former developer of battery energy storage projects and engineer (Joe Rowley), said that as a professional, he was concerned that the project was very poorly sited and should be in a more industrial area away from homes due to the risk of “thermal runaway.”
The council discussed the topic, and it became clear that Mayor Jones was opposed to the resolution because “we need to stay in our lane,” claiming that the City should not weigh in on projects in other jurisdictions that they have no control over. Of course, this was easily disputed. Cities regularly comment on projects outside their jurisdiction, and as a matter of course, the County seeks input from neighboring jurisdictions. And furthermore, the project is going to be in the San Marcos Fire Protection District, who will be weighing in on the project. The City Council has direct authority over the Fire District. Not to mention that the property is about 1600 or so feet from the San Marcos boundaries, is in the sphere of influence, and any fire is likely to impact the mobile home park to the north and Coronado Hills residents to the west. After all, toxic plumes don’t respect city boundaries. It didn’t make sense, and her justification for opposing did not seem to convince anyone. Council member Musgrove seemed to echo Jones’ perspective. He and Jones proposed a “friendly” amendment to “study the matter further at a later date,” which seemed to be more of a stall tactic, putting off making a decision at a later date.
Sharon Jenkins noted that the developer had offered to fund city programs in exchange for their support. She had found that distasteful and rejected it. Last month, the Escondido City Council also had a vote on this matter, and Council Member Joe Garcia had a similar anecdote about his meeting with the developers. He was clearly offended and noted, “Escondido is not for sale.” There has also been talk of AES (the developer) and their union (IBEW) pressuring elected officials via threats of blocked endorsements and the prospect of supporting their opponents in upcoming elections. This doesn’t bode well for any goodwill this developer or the union has for the communities impacted.
At any rate, Council Member Nuñez spoke up during the discussion. She said that after hearing the testimony from the residents and the subject matter expert, she supported the resolution. There was no reason that the council shouldn’t weigh in on this project that will clearly impact San Marcos residents. That would appear to be 3 votes to pass the resolution. Mike Sannella, who co-sponsored the resolution, changed his position mid meeting. It seems that he was swayed by Jones and Musgrove and didn’t want to upset the apple cart. It was very disappointing to see our own San Elijo Hills representative back out under pressure when he could have done the right thing.
On the upside, they are directing staff to do more research and to engage experts like Mr. Rowley to help craft regulations that will help site the project appropriately.
Mike Sanella needs to be voted off the council next term as it’s obvious he doesn’t have San Marco’s best interests at heart .