The Nonprofit Environmental Democracy Project has filed a lawsuit against Tesla for violation of the Clean Air Act.
TakeAway Points:
- The Environmental Democracy Project is suing Tesla, claiming that the company’s Fremont, California assembly factory has been in “continuous violation of the Clean Air Act.”
- Tesla was previously accused by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District of permitting “unabated emissions” in Fremont.
- CEO Elon Musk is advising investors these days to conceive of the company “almost purely in terms of addressing autonomy.”
Tesla Sued Air Pollution
The non-profit Environmental Democracy Project is suing Tesla, claiming that the electric car manufacturer’s Fremont, California assembly plant has been “continually failing to comply with the Clean Air Act.”
The environmental organisation claimed in the lawsuit that Tesla has broken the regulation “hundreds of times since January 2021, spewing dangerous emissions into the neighbourhoods surrounding the Factory.” The lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco on Monday.
Although environmentalists have long criticised Tesla’s production methods, the company has always emphasised the benefits driving electric vehicles provides for the environment.
According to the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Tesla ranked 89th on the 2023 Toxic 100 Air Polluters list. This annual assessment is conducted. In 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency penalised Tesla $275,000 for its failure to test, manage, and keep records regarding its own emissions or to reduce air pollutants from the facility’s painting operations.
Tesla’s Previsious Involvement in Environmental Pollution
In a related development, Tesla quickly reached a settlement with the 25 counties in California that had sued it earlier this year for handling hazardous waste materials at various locations across the state. Additionally, environmentalists in Germany have been opposing both Tesla’s water usage and the company’s clearing of forests to build a factory outside of Berlin.
Residents and workers in the vicinity have been exposed to “excess amounts of air pollution, including nitrogen oxides, arsenic, cadmium, and other harmful chemicals,” according to the most recent lawsuit in California, which also characterised Tesla’s environmental violations as “ongoing.”
Environmental regulator Bay Area Air Quality Management District has charged Tesla with permitting “unabated emissions” in Fremont that ought to have been stopped. According to the government, Tesla has been the subject of 112 violation warnings since 2019. As a result, the firm is currently requesting an abatement order, which would compel the corporation to make modifications to its factory operations.
“The violations are frequent, recurring, and can negatively affect public health and the environment,” the regulator said in a statement earlier this month.
According to officials, the assembly plant’s air pollution is caused by equipment that malfunctions often, letting pollutants escape into the atmosphere unfiltered. Furthermore, it is said that Tesla workers or contractors turned off the factory’s air pollution controls, especially while the business was experiencing issues with other paint shop equipment.
Vehicle bodies that are not painted are primed, painted, and coated at the paint shop prior to final assembly. Teslas have a history of flames, according to a prior investigation from CNBC.
Telsa Remains Unmoved
Tesla insisted that its goal is to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy” in its most recent quarterly report.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has been pushing the company’s R&D efforts towards artificial intelligence and self-driving software, robotaxis, and humanoid robots, rather than electric vehicles and solar energy goods, though, as part of a recent significant reorganisation.
During the company’s first-quarter results call, Musk advised investors to consider Tesla and its worth “almost exclusively in terms of solving autonomy.” He recently shared mocking memes on X that mocked climate campaigners, calling them “communists.”
