The Texas company that owns the battery storage plant at Moss Landing that burned in a spectacular fire in January, raising questions nationwide about the safety of the fast-growing renewable energy technology, has withdrawn plans to build a similarly-sized battery storage plant in the adjacent county.

Vistra, based in Dallas, has notified the California Energy Commission that it is dropping efforts to secure state permits to construct a 600-megawatt battery storage plant in Morro Bay, a coastal town in San Luis Obispo County.

The proposed plant would have been one of the largest in the United States with thousands of lithium-ion batteries capable of storing enough electricity for 450,000 homes. Vistra did not announce the decision to halt the project publicly or notify city leaders, des

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