Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday announced a series of new recommendations for enhanced fire-safety standards and project review of large battery-storage facilities as the state prepares to vastly expand their number across the state and particularly on Long Island.
The move comes as pockets of opposition to the facilities mounts on Long Island, where three towns — Southampton, Southold and Huntington — already have instituted moratoriums on battery storage development in their jurisdiction, and others are considering them.
The new standards follow release of a preliminary report from a task force formed by Hochul last year to study fires at three battery facilities across the state, including one in East Hampton. A Newsday story cited activists raising questions about the report, including whether companies were prepared to test for lithium in ground samples and the lack of groundwater testing.
The state and East Hampton battery developer NextEra defended their practices and the safety of the facilities, and Hochul in her announcement Tuesday reiterated that there were “no reported injuries and no harmful levels of toxins detected” following the fires in Jefferson, Orange and Suffolk Counties in 2023.
The task force on Tuesday released 15 draft recommendations for enhanced fire-safety standards, which propose to amend the current Fire Code of New York State to address “preventive and project-permit applications, emergency response planning and local fire department training.”
Among the draft recommendations: requiring industry-funded independent peer reviews for all battery storage facilities proposed in the state over a certain size; expand the requirement for explosion control to battery-storage facility cabinets in addition to other areas of the facilities, and a requirement that “qualified personnel” are available for dispatch within 15 minutes of a reported facility fire and “able to arrive on scene within for hours …” A full list of…
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