Morning Report: Renewable Battery Storage Debate Catches Fire

Reporter MacKenzie Elmer has been working on a story about the push to suspend construction of new energy grid battery facilities in San Diego following recent fear fires at established battery sites.

Batteries are key to the region meeting its renewable energy goals. If we don’t want to use fossil fuels like natural gas to provide electricity to the grid, California needs batteries to store renewable energy so it can be used when the sun goes down and the wind stops blowing. But fires have triggered panic among skeptics of battery facilities. Next week, the county will consider imposing a temporary ban on building new ones until it can figure out how to force companies to build them more safely. 

Renewable energy advocates, like County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, hasn’t said whether she supports a moratorium on batteries or not. Renewable energy public power companies like San Diego Community Power, where Lawson-Remer serves as the board’s vice chair, say such a moratorium would make it nearly impossible for the county and region to meet renewable energy climate goals. 

Quite a spark: Minutes after Elmer’s story posted, an SDG&E battery facility she toured in Escondido on Thursday caught fire. The city of Escondido issued a mandatory evacuation for the surrounding businesses. 

Read more here. 

What the District’s Acting Supe Didn’t Say

San Diego Unified School District’s new Acting Superintendent Fabiola Bagula gathered principals earlier this week for a pep talk over Zoom.

Her goal was to quell concerns following the forced departure of now ex-Superintendent Lamont Jackson after an investigation confirmed allegations of sexual harassment.

What got reporter Jakob McWhinney’s attention was what Bagula didn’t mention. The San Diego Unified veteran leads a district reeling from what is only the latest sexual misconduct scandal to hit it in recent years and yet, McWhinney writes, her Tuesday speech didn’t mention the victims of sexual harassment or share any concrete plans for the district’s future. 

Read the full story here. 

Council Prez Wants to Give Mayor New Powers on Homelessness

Council President Sean Elo-Rivera will urge fellow councilmembers on Monday to grant Mayor Todd Gloria new powers to try to more rapidly respond to the city’s housing and homelessness crises.

After back-and-forth with Gloria’s office this summer over whether formal declarations could help the city confront the impending closure of hundreds of shelter beds, Elo-Rivera is proposing a process for the mayor to declare housing and homelessness emergencies under certain conditions. Once the mayor declares an emergency, he could bypass competitive bidding processes and City Council approval on some contracts. Elo-Rivera’s pitch also calls for quarterly reports to the City Council on the status of the emergency and actions taken to address it. Elo-Rivera said these reports will help councilmembers evaluate whether to continue granting emergency powers.

“My commitment is to making sure that we have every possible tool available to the mayor, to the council and to the city to address homelessness because we are in a state of emergency,” Elo-Rivera said in July.

Where Gloria stands now: Gloria’s team initially wasn’t jazzed about the prospect of another emergency declaration. But the mayor said Wednesday he’s decided the new powers could be helpful if the City Council signs off.

“I think there may have been some impression that this would not be as impactful as I believe it can be,” Gloria said. “The council president is due a lot of credit for being willing to stretch on this and I think the end result is that we can do new shelters faster.”

Will the mayor quickly declare an emergency if the council approves? “Not necessarily immediately,” spokesperson Rachel Laing told Voice of San Diego.

A Review of Fish Market History

The Tuna Harbor Dockside Market — a long beloved destination among locavores and seafood enthusiasts — just celebrated its 10th anniversary.

Before a decade ago, no markets of this kind existed in San Diego because the county’s permitting system excluded fishermen, a peculiar policy choice that inspired a Voice of San Diego story in 2014. Within a month of that report, the law had been changed and the fisherman’s market was permitted.

The weekly market has since become known for its dedicated crowd of early-bird shoppers and unique array of local species, including sea urchin and Pacific sanddab.

Voice social media producer and proud pescatarian Bella Ross talked about the market’s history and the importance of supporting local fishermen with Peter Halmay, a sea urchin diver and fishing advocate, in a new video.

You can visit the market in Seaport Village on Saturday mornings from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. (or until sold out).

Watch the video here.

In Other News

• Both houses of the California legislature passed an official declaration urging President Joe Biden and Congress to speed-up the response to the Tijuana River sewage crisis affecting South Bay and Tijuana, and again asked Biden to declare the issue a national emergency. So far the governor of California hasn’t gone as far as to declare the issue a state emergency, which is typically required for the president to follow suit as Voice previously reported. (Union-Tribune and Voice of San Diego)
• In other South Bay sewage news, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention committed to investigating health impacts of the border-sewer crisis with hundreds of door-to-door assessments, according to county officials. (Union-Tribune)
• A Redfin analysis found San Diego had the largest year-over-year spike in new home listings among 50 of the nation’s largest metros. (Fox 5 San Diego)
• If he’s elected city attorney in November, inewsource reveals that former city councilmember Brian Maienschein will collect both a city salary and pension.
• The city’s homelessness point person asked the City Council and independent budget analysts to propose potential shelter sites. The Union-Tribune detailed their suggestions.

The Morning Report was written by MacKenzie Elmer, Lisa Halverstadt and Bella Ross. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña. 

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