New York City can’t seem to get its head straight when it comes to lithium-ion batteries.
On the one hand, in response to the 733 lithium-ion battery e-bike and scooter fires that have broken out in the five boroughs since 2019, political leaders launched an initiative to ban the vehicles from apartment lobbies.
The battery packs that power these unsafe devices are about 18 inches long and 6 inches wide. And they seem to catch fire often, resulting not only in significant property damage, but also in the loss of innocent lives: at least 29 New Yorkers killed in the last five years.
On the other hand, the City Council approved the City of Yes for Carbon Neutrality in December, expanding the zoning allowances for lithium-ion Battery Energy Storage Systems.
Now, the city is siting dozens of facilities consisting of enormous 40-foot-long lithium-ion batteries throughout Staten Island — in the heart of residential neighborhoods, and in some cases less than 30 feet from homes and gas stations.
If a lithium-ion battery that is 18 inches long and 6 inches wide is too dangerous to be allowed in residential buildings, how is it that a 40-foot-long lithium-ion battery can be deemed safe to be located right next to somebody’s home?
These facilities are being built throughout the city with multiple containers that are thousands of times larger and more dangerous than the fire-prone, volatile batteries that power electric scooters.
On Staten Island alone, 38 BESS facilities have been proposed, many in dense residential neighborhoods next to homes.
Two of the sites are next door to gas stations.
To make matters worse for the smallest of the five boroughs, Staten Island represents about 6% of the city’s population — but is slated to receive almost 50% of its planned BESS units.
The batteries that power these storage systems are as dangerous and unstable as the e-bike batteries that the city is clamping down on.
Just about anything can make them catch fire — too much water, lightning, damaged casings, being too hot or too cold, hidden defects and recharging malfunctions, to name just a few causes.
Building these things next to homes is like putting hundreds of powder kegs together and daring someone to drop a lit match inside.
Even worse, these fires are incredibly difficult to extinguish and release large volumes of poisonous toxins into the air, including carbon monoxide and hydrogen fluoride.
While the Fire Department may or may not be able to eventually put the flames out — oftentimes after days of burning and reigniting — nothing can be done to prevent the migration of toxic fumes into nearby residences.
Entire neighborhoods will be forced to evacuate, and firefighters will be put in direct harm as they battle the heat, flames and fumes.
All in the relentless push for “carbon neutrality.”
This isn’t just a fantasy — it is a reality, and it has been happening across the country.
In New York state, two BESS units burned last summer in Warwick, one in East Hampton, and one in Lyme, shortly before the City of Yes measure passed.
In May, a massive BESS facility outside San Diego burned for nearly two weeks, reigniting twice and spewing harmful gases into the air before being extinguished.
Just last week, a truck transporting a BESS unit on I-15 near Baker, Calif., crashed, causing a fire that lasted the weekend and shut down the major interstate highway.
As Staten Islanders remember, this is not the first time an unproven energy storage technology was tried here. Fifty years ago, the New York City Council allowed construction of several massive liquefied natural gas tanks in the Bloomfield section of Staten Island.
I was 8 years old in 1973 when my neighbors expressed concerns that the LNG tanks were dangerous. On Feb. 9, the company that owned the tanks called Staten Islanders “hysterical” and assured them the facility was safe.
The next day, Feb. 10, one of the tanks exploded and tragically killed 40 people.
I urge the city’s political leadership to rescind the rules allowing these dangerous battery storage facilities to be built in residential neighborhoods — and to act now rather than await another deadly accident to occur.
Until the city can guarantee these BESS sites’ safety — and until the FDNY can assure us that the inevitable fires can quickly be extinguished — there should be no lithium-ion energy storage units allowed in residential zones.
The city is quite literally playing with fire as it pushes for carbon neutrality at all costs.
Vito Fossella is Staten Island Borough President.