diesel

Drivers of diesel cars would have to pay a surcharge to encourage them to switch to less polluting vehicles.

The site design will include a lot of smaller turbines, battery storage and diesel generators for backup in case there’s ever a problem with the gas supply, he said.

The largest plant in Europe has since been powered by backup diesel generators, and "repairs to power lines are needed on both sides of the front line, several kilometres from the site", according to Grossi.

With the grid largely down, essential services have depended on limited diesel generators and the remaining solar panels.

The heavy metal is 500 times more carcinogenic than diesel exhaust and poses the second-highest cancer risk of all toxic air contaminants tracked by the state, according to the California Air Resources Board.