California

$600 million battery storage project meets resistance in California

Published

2 years ago

May 30, 2024

0 million battery storage project meets resistance in California

An artist’s conception of the proposed battery storage project, formerly the site of the power plant’s tank farm. Image courtesy of Vistra Corp.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published by Inside Climate News. It appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

By some criteria, 1290 Embarcadero in Morro Bay, Calif. seems like a prime site for a facility to store renewable energy.

This swath of coastal land houses a power plant that was shuttered a decade ago and its still standing smokestacks. Vistra Corp.’s proposal for a 600-megawatt battery storage project on a portion of the site includes remediating the entire area and removing the plant and stacks, readying the land for future development. And the site’s history as a power plant means it’s well-positioned to connect to existing transmission lines.

“The location is fantastic, and certainly the need is there in the California grid,” said Mark McDaniels, Vistra’s vice president of renewables and storage, at an April 24 community meeting.

But some locals in the small city on California’s Central Coast disagree, and placed a measure on the ballot this fall that could impact the project’s future. Project opponents say they’re concerned about its impacts on tourism and the potential for fires at the facility, with one resident calling the proposal a “toxic bomb” during the meeting.

California recently surpassed 10,000 megawatts of battery storage capacity, marking a 1,250 percent increase since 2019. At one point on April 19, batteries were the largest source of power to the state’s grid for the first time. And in the inland Southern California town of Menifee, a 680-megawatt storage project replacing an old gas plant will be among the largest battery reserves in the United States.

California draws a growing share of its electricity from the sun during the day, but the sun sets as Californians come home from work and turn the lights on, creating demand that usually must be filled by fossil fuels. Battery storage allows power companies to generated by solar panels and windmills for when the sun isn’t shining and breezes are calm.

The state still will need nearly 42,000 additional megawatts of energy storage capacity by 2045 to meet its goal of using 100-percent clean electricity that year. But in some communities like Morro Bay, proposed storage projects have been met with heated opposition.

This local pushback demonstrates the tension between the desire for “really high quality local permitting” and the state’s push for “really rapid transformation of the whole electricity grid and rapid deployment of energy storage,” which will require the speedy issuing of permits, said Mariko Geronimo Aydin, co-founder and chief energy economist at Lumen Energy Strategy, which last year completed an analysis of the state of battery storage in the state for the California Public Utilities Commission.

“I think ultimately, we want to have both; we don’t want one at the expense of the other,” said Geronimo Aydin.

Vistra Corp. proposed the Morro Bay battery storage project in 2020, and the project is currently in the draft environmental impact report stage, with that document open for public comments through the end of May. The project is awaiting consideration by the city’s planning commission and city council.

But the ballot measure put forth by local opposition group Citizens for Estero Bay Preservation would reroute that process by requiring approval by a majority of voters. Last year, the group gathered enough signatures—10 percent of the city’s registered voters—to place Measure A-24 on the ballot.

Back in 2021, the city changed the land-use designation of the shuttered power plant from “Industrial” to “Visitor Serving/Commercial,” and for the energy storage project to move forward, the city council would need to vote to change the designation to again allow industrial uses. If the ballot measure is approved, it would freeze the current land-use designation of the property and a few others in the area and then require a majority of voters to approve another change in the land-use designation.

“We felt that kind of facility basically in the center of our tourist area is inappropriate. Our whole town is based on the tourism economy,” said Barry Branin, a member of the group behind the ballot measure.

Instead, he says the battery storage project should go somewhere more inland in the agricultural valleys east of Morro Bay, or “out in the middle of the desert somewhere,” near existing renewable energy projects.

“All of the people from the valley like to come to Morro Bay, and if I knew there was going to be a battery facility. . . I wouldn’t want to bring my family to Morro Rock,” said Branin. “So why deprive the rest of the state of the use of the coast for some economic reason?”

Branin also argues that inland residents use more air conditioning than people living on the coast, so “the batteries should be near the users who have the air conditioners that are really demanding the electricity (at night).”

The argument underlies a key intersection of California’s climate and housing crises: For years, housing development has stagnated along the generally wealthier coasts as residents resist new development, pushing more Californians inland to communities at higher risk of extreme heat events.

Vistra says the project would support both the state’s energy needs and the local community.

“Our proposed plan puts ratepayers and residents of Morro Bay first by utilizing pre-existing interconnection infrastructure, while allowing for the eventual master planning and redevelopment of the remaining property to improve the Embarcadero area and allow for increased public access for the benefit of future generations,” reads a statement attributed to Claudia Morrow, senior vice president of development for Vistra.

And not building large-scale storage at sites with existing transmission infrastructure like the former power plant in Morro Bay “would lead to higher costs for the electricity system as a whole,” said Geronimo Aydin.

Citizens for Estero Bay also cites concerns over potential fires at the battery facility, pointing to the nearby example of Vistra’s Moss Landing in Monterey County, where in September 2022 a faulty smoke detector triggered water releases on the battery racks, which caused short circuits. The facility was then offline for months.

A community safety report commissioned by Vistra for the Morro Bay project found “no significant risk to the community,” determining that if a fire burned at the facility while wind blew the emissions toward nearby homes, the fire wouldn’t release enough toxins to cause a significant health risk. But that’s done little to quell concerns from community members, who filed into a recent community meeting holding up blue “Yes on Measure A-24 signs.”

Safety events at battery storage facilities are “relatively rare” across the United States, impacting between 1 to 2 percent of systems, and tend to occur in the first couple years of operation, according to Geronimo Aydin. The estimate applies to the industry “while it was in its pilot and demonstration phase,” and she says the industry has since standardized and improved safety best practices. But clearly and accurately communicating the potential risks to local residents and other stakeholders is still a big barrier for the industry.

“Now we’re at a position where safety risks and how to manage them are very well understood by those who work in the space, but the challenge now is to communicate exactly what that risk is, that it’s manageable risk and how to manage it,” said Geronimo Aydin.

Branin says he’s confident the ballot measure will succeed. But new legislation that allows large battery storage facilities to opt in to an approval process from the California Energy Commission (CEC), instead of going through a local process, could provide a backup pathway to Vistra.

Vistra didn’t respond to questions about how the ballot measure might impact the project, and at the April 24 community meeting a Vistra representative only said the company is focused on the project and the current process from the city.

“The applicant says they’re committed to the city’s process, and we’re working with them in good faith on that,” said Michael Codron, the city’s interim director of community development. “If the city’s process results in a denial or if the ballot measure precludes the ability of the city council to approve the application, I would think they would avail themselves of the CEC process.”

Source link

California

California farmer arrested on suspicion of murder in wife’s death in Arizona

Published

2 hours ago

December 24, 2025

Press Room

California farmer arrested on suspicion of murder in wife’s death in Arizona

A prominent California farmer was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of murder in the shooting death of his estranged wife in a remote mountain community in Arizona, the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office said.

Michael Abatti, 63, was arrested in El Centro and booked into jail on a first-degree murder charge. He is awaiting extradition to Arizona.

Authorities say they believe he drove to Arizona on Nov. 20 and fatally shot Kerri Ann Abatti, 59, before returning home to California. She was found dead in her family’s tree-shrouded vacation home in Pinetop, Arizona, where she moved after splitting with her husband.

An attorney for Michael Abatti didn’t immediately respond to an email and text message seeking comment.

Authorities searched his home in far Southern California on Dec. 2 as part of the investigation into his wife’s death.

El Centro is a city of 44,000 people just minutes from the Mexican border in the crop-rich Imperial Valley, which is the biggest user of Colorado River water and known for growing leafy greens, melons and forage crops.

Michael Abatti comes from a long line of farmers in the region bordering Arizona, and his grandfather, an Italian immigrant, was among the region’s early settlers. His father, Ben, helped start the Imperial Valley Vegetable Growers Association, and the Abatti name is known throughout the region and tied to farming enterprises, scholarship funds and leadership in local boards and groups.

Water sits in a ditch Friday, Dec. 12, 2025, in El Centro, Calif. Credit: AP/Gregory Bull

Michael Abatti has grown onions, broccoli, cantaloupes and other crops in the Imperial Valley and served on the board of the powerful Imperial Irrigation District from 2006 to 2010.

Michael and Kerri Abatti were married in 1992 and had three children.

Kerri Abatti is a descendant of one of the first Latter-day Saints families to settle Pinetop in the 1880s. The community, located 190 miles (305 kilometers) northeast of Phoenix in the White Mountains, was briefly called Penrodville after Kerri’s forbearers before adopting the Pinetop name.

The couple split in 2023 and Kerri Abatti filed for divorce in proceedings that were pending in California at the time of her death.

Water droplets from sprinklers cover an irrigated field Friday, Dec.... — Water droplets from sprinklers cover an irrigated field Friday, Dec. 12, 2025, in El Centro, Calif. Credit: AP/Gregory Bull

The Abattis were sparring over finances with Kerri telling the court the couple had lived an upper-class lifestyle during more than three decades of marriage. They owned a large home in California, a vacation home in Pinetop and ranch land in Wyoming and vacationed in Switzerland, Italy and Hawaii while sending their children to private school, she said.

After the split, Kerri was granted $5,000 a month in temporary spousal support but last year asked for an increase to $30,000, saying she couldn’t maintain her standard of living as she quit her job as a bookkeeper and office manager for the family farm in 1999 to stay home with the couple’s three children. Kerri, who previously held a real estate license in Arizona, also asked for an additional $100,000 in attorney’s fees, court filings show.

“I am barely scraping by each month, am handling all of the manual labor on our large property in Arizona and continuing its upkeep,” she wrote in court filings earlier this year, adding she was living near her elderly parents. Kerri said she also needed to buy a newer car because her 2011 vehicle had more than 280,000 miles (450,600 kilometers) on it and sorely needed repairs.

Michael Abatti said in a legal filing that he couldn’t afford the increase after two bad farming years took a toll on his monthly income. He said European shifts in crop-buying to support war-plagued Ukrainian farmers and rising shipping costs were to blame along with an unusually cold and wet winter.

He said in mid-2024 it cost $1,000 to grow an acre of wheat that he could sell for $700, and that he was receiving about $22,000 a month to run the farm as the business struggled to pay its creditors in full.

“The income available at this time does not warrant any increase in the amount to which the parties stipulated, let alone an increase to $30,000 per month,” Lee Hejmanowski, Michael Abatti’s family law attorney, wrote in court papers.

Days later, Michael Abatti agreed to increase temporary spousal support payments to $6,400 a month, court filings show.

He studied in the agricultural business management program at Colorado State University in Fort Collins before returning to California, according to a 2023 book about water issues written by his college friend, Craig Morgan, titled “The Morality of Deceit.”

In 2009, Michael Abatti almost died from an infection caused by a flesh-eating bacteria and was hospitalized and placed in a medically induced coma for treatment, Morgan wrote in the book.

Source link

California

Missing California 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard found dead, grandmother says

Published

14 hours ago

December 23, 2025

Press Room

Missing California 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard found dead, grandmother says

Melodee Buzzard, the 9-year-old whose disappearance was reported by Santa Barbara County educators in October, has been found dead, a relative confirmed to The Times on Tuesday.

Melodee vanished during an unusual road trip with her mother earlier this year, sparking a months-long investigation.

Her disappearance captivated and confounded true crime watchers around the nation as FBI investigators and armchair detectives alike tried to solve the puzzle of what happened.

On Tuesday, Melodee’s paternal grandmother confirmed to The Times that her body has been found by investigators.

“The detective called me this morning to let me know that they found the baby and the baby is with her dad,” said Melodee’s grandmother Lilly Denes. “I knew he was telling me that the baby is dead.”

Melodee’s father, Rubiell “Pinoy” Meza, died in a motorcycle accident in 2016.

Local TV news station KSBY captured video of Melodee’s mother Ashlee Buzzard being taken into custody shortly before 7:45 a.m. Tuesday. During the road trip earlier this year, Buzzard changed out the license plates on her rental car and wore wigs in what detectives described as possible attempts to avoid detection, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.

The Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but has planned a 2 p.m. news conference to provide updates on the case. Here is what we know about the events that led up to Tuesday’s tragic discovery.

Ashlee Buzzard’s ‘hard knock’ childhood

When Ashlee Buzzard was just 9 years old — the same age as her daughter Melodee when she went missing — she and her mother, Lori Miranda, became homeless after fleeing Buzzard’s abusive father, Miranda told the Santa Maria Times in 1995.

The article, titled “Lessons From the School of Hard Knocks,” describes how Miranda and her daughter arrived on the streets of Santa Maria with no job, home or car and only $40 to support them.

They had previously moved from place to place to get away from Miranda’s husband, who she said struggled with substance use and episodes of violence. In June 1994, Miranda decided to take her daughter from Orange County to the Central Coast to be farther away from him, and they briefly lived at the Good Samaritan Shelter in Santa Maria before moving into an apartment.

“I was so scared,” Ashlee told the paper, describing her early days in Santa Maria. “I knew no one [here]. I felt very uncomfortable.”

According to Melodee’s paternal relatives, Buzzard had a contentious relationship with her mother.

When Buzzard was in the 11th grade at Santa Maria High School, she filed a petition to be emancipated from Miranda, according to court records. The judge rejected the petition, noting that Buzzard was still living with her mother and had not submitted adequate information pertaining to her income and expenses.

A birth and a sudden death

Melodee was born Feb. 10, 2016, to Buzzard and Meza. Six months later, Meza died.

In Melodee’s early years, Meza’s family continued to have a relationship with the girl, according to Denes. She was a lovable child, always smiling and well-behaved, Denes said.

Lilly Denes, the paternal grandmother of missing California girl Melodee Buzzard, in her home in Orcutt on Nov. 6.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

In 2021, another of Denes’ sons took care of Melodee while Buzzard was hospitalized for several weeks, she said.

During this period, Denes said she was working with social services to gain custody of Melodee as she was concerned about Buzzard’s ability to care for the child. But before Denes had finished the background check process, Buzzard was discharged from the hospital, picked up her daughter from school and left Santa Maria, Denes said.

After that, Buzzard relocated to the nearby neighborhood of Vandenberg Village and refused to let the girl’s paternal relatives see her. She did, however, occasionally visit Denes to ask for money over the years, Denes said.

Federal court records show that Buzzard filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2017. She’s also had five collections and one small claims lawsuit for alleged unpaid debts filed against her in Santa Barbara County Superior Court, the most recent of which was filed by Capital One Bank in May.

In August, Buzzard enrolled Melodee in an independent study program at the Lompoc Unified School District. Sheriff’s detectives believe that she had previously been homeschooling the girl for several years, but the California Department of Education has no record of her submitting the required paperwork to do so, according to a department spokesperson.

A strange cross-country road trip

Lompoc, Calif. - Sheriff's detectives are releasing an updated timeline

On Oct. 7, Buzzard and Melodee left their Vandenberg Village home and traveled to Nebraska, according to the Sheriff’s Office. During the trip, Buzzard switched out the California license plates (9MNG101) on the car with New York plates (HCG9677). When she returned home Oct. 10, the original plates were reaffixed, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Both Melodee and Buzzard were apparently wearing wigs during the journey and the mother reportedly changed wigs throughout, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The last confirmed sighting of Melodee was on Oct. 9, when she was seen on surveillance video near the Utah-Colorado border.

The investigation

On Oct. 14, school administrators reported Melodee’s prolonged absence from her independent study program to the Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators then visited Buzzard’s home, where the mother refused to answer questions about her daughter’s whereabouts, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

On Oct. 30, the FBI joined the case and assisted the Sheriff’s Office in serving search warrants for Buzzard’s home, the rental car and a storage locker.

Detectives then mapped out Buzzard’s road trip route and focused on the return route, from where Melodee was last seen in Utah to Vandenberg Village.

Investigators believe that Buzzarde traveled through the following areas on or around October 9, 2025

During October, relatives and concerned community members often gathered around Buzzard’s home, chanting, “Where is Melodee” and leaving posters with messages such as “Bring her home.” The investigation became a national sensation, with videos produced by true crime sleuths racking up thousands of views on TikTok and Instagram.

Buzzard arrested following accusations of false imprisonment

Buzzard was arrested Nov. 7 in an incident unrelated to the investigation into her daughters disappearance, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

She was accused of unlawfully violating the personal liberty of Tyler S. Brewer after disclosing sensitive information to him.

Brewer, a paralegal and acquaintance of Buzzard, said in a statement that he visited Buzzard at her home to offer assistance in the search for the missing girl, and that the situation quickly escalated.

But at a hearing in November, a Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge dismissed the case after new evidence came to light that called his version of events into question.

“After the initial report to law enforcement and the filing of the complaint, further investigation yielded additional evidence that was contradictory to the information that was initially provided to detectives,” said Amber Frost, a spokesperson for the Santa Barbara district attorney’s office.

“That evidence was brought out at the hearing and inconsistencies were examined by both sides. Ultimately, it was determined that the evidence was not sufficient to move this case forward to trial,” Frost said.

Times staff writer Terry Castleman contributed to this report.

Source link

California

Placer County crews rescue baby, family from home surrounded by raging river

Published

1 day ago

December 23, 2025

Press Room

Placer County crews rescue baby, family from home surrounded by raging river

PLACER COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) — Heavy rain and flooding impacted Northern California over the weekend, leading to rescues and evacuations throughout the region.

In Placer County, emergency crews carefully and slowly rescued a baby in a carrier, sliding it on a ladder over a rushing river.

The raging South Yuba River overtook the home, where nine people were rescued by the Truckee Fire Protection District.

As of Monday morning, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said an evacuation warning continues to be in effect for areas along the South Yuba River between Donner Pass Road and Cisco Road.

The storm is also swamping parts of Humboldt County, where the sheriff’s office shared pictures of goats stranded on someone’s doorstep.

This is near the Freshwater area – near Arcata, where high water forced several evacuations.

Crews arrived in jet skis to assist residents.

In Redding, one person died after major flooding.

Water took over streets and entire neighborhoods.

Several people had to be rescued, and Interstate 5 was also flooded, impacting holiday drivers.

LIVE UPDATES: Storms flood parts of NorCal with heavy rain as alerts expand to entire Bay Area

In Mendocino County, Willits received more than 6 inches of rain in 48 hours, flooding parks in the area.

With more rain in the forecast, rescue crews are prepared and people are reminded not to ever drive through standing water.

Source link