Revealed: Public $$$ for Moss Landing BESS

Vistra's Half Billion Dollar Pork Pie

New research reveals that Vistra Corp likely received almost $500 million in politically directed money to build and operate its Battery Electric Storage System (BESS) in Moss Landing. Absent that half-billion in subsidies and mandated payments, this BESS would never have been built. Tragically, the Vistra BESS self-immolated on January 16, 2025, causing immense harm to surrounding communities and Salinas Valley farms.

The roughly $480 million in crony payments came from federal tax credits and state mandated power purchases. The research behind this dollar figure is summarized below and detailed at this Grok query.

• Federal: ~$220 million in tax credits stemmed from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, aka the Green New Deal. That signature Biden-Harris legislation was supported by Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, and Representatives Jimmy Panetta, Zoe Lofgren and Ro Khanna. All represent communities sickened by the January disaster.
  

• State: ~$259 million in mandated power purchases by PG&E from the BESS stemmed from California’s 2013 storage mandate. As an aside, nonsense like this is why our electric bills are so high, and why energy poverty dogs working folks across California.

Absent that half billion dollar pork pie, the ML BESS wouldn't have been financially viable.

It wouldn't have been built, wouldn't have caught fire, wouldn't have become a disaster.

Grok summarizes it this way:

Without federal tax credits, operational subsidies, or California’s AB 2514 mandate, the Moss Landing BESS was likely not financially viable prior to the January 2025 fire. Estimated costs ($1.412 billion NPV) exceed revenues ($1.121 billion NPV) under conservative assumptions, yielding a negative NPV of −$291 million. — Grok

IOW, this turkey had a roughly THREE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLAR HOLE in its business plan. That hole was filled with taxpayer money, filled to overflowing. Half a billion to fill a $300 million hole overflows a cool $200 million for insiders to share. It's good to be them.

Reparations Required

Given the terrible harm that befell the communities surrounding Vistra’s BESS disaster and the fortune in public money used to build and operate it, Vistra should disgorge that $500 million of public money into a community fund for victims of the disaster. Such reparations probably won’t be the total of Vistra’s liability, but will help ameliorate the immense losses suffered by the good people and businesses in the surrounding area.

Governor Newsom, Senators Padilla and Schiff, and Representatives Panetta, Lofgren and Khanna should join in a bipartisan effort with Republicans to force Vistra into reparations. After all, those professional Democrats supported the legislation responsible for the financing of the BESS. Now that it has gone up in flames, terribly harming their constituents, they should seek the best deal to help the victims. It's the least they can do.