Just a few years ago, communities facing the prospect of a major solar or battery storage facility being constructed within their borders were wholly unprepared for the potential consequences.

Very few had any zoning or planning regulations in place to evaluate applications for new businesses. And they needed a lot of time to research and understand the impact of a fire or explosion, the public health threat from whatever toxins might be discharged into the air, and the challenges to local emergency services to respond adequately and safely to such an emergency.

Given that even state officials didn’t even quite seem to understand the potential impacts of a mishap and hadn’t yet developed procedures for dealing with a problem, one certainly couldn’t expect........

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