As Musk Assumes Deregulation Role, Tesla Racks Up Pollution Violations (WSJ)

[dalton99a]

https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/elon-musk-tesla-environment-1263cd60

As Musk Assumes Deregulation Role, Tesla Racks Up Pollution Violations
Texas Gigafactory ran afoul of environmental overseers; a faulty furnace door and hazardous wastewater
By Susan Pulliam, Emily Glazer and Becky Peterson
Nov. 24, 2024 9:00 pm ET

Elon Musk made big promises to Wall Street about Tesla’s new Model Y SUV in 2022, and the company was ramping up its production in Austin, Texas, when environmental problems threatened to derail his plans.

The door to the plant’s giant casting furnace, which melts metal to be molded into the Model Y’s parts, wouldn’t shut, spewing toxins into the air and raising temperatures for workers on the floor to as high as 100 degrees. Hazardous wastewater from production — containing paint, oil and other chemicals — was also flowing untreated into the city’s sewer, in violation of state guidelines.

Tesla left the costly problems largely unaddressed during the critical ramp-up. As a result, the company’s 10 million-plus square foot plant — among the largest car factories in the world — dumped toxic pollutants into the environment near Austin for months.

A [Wall Street] Journal investigation shows that Tesla bosses were aware of the problems but sometimes chose short-term fixes to avoid slowing production. Former employees said they feared they might lose their job if they drew attention internally to potential environmental hazards, because senior managers didn’t consider such issues to be mission critical. As head of the company, Musk set the tone, these people said, pushing employees to move fast and complaining frequently in public statements that unnecessary regulations are strangling the U.S.

The world’s richest man now has an even bigger megaphone. Musk, who aligned himself closely with President-elect Donald Trump during his campaign, was named Nov. 12 as co-head of a new Department of Government Efficiency, or “DOGE.” Musk has said he thinks he can chop “at least $2 trillion” from the federal budget, including by cutting government jobs at regulatory agencies. How that will play out for the EPA is unclear, but some people who have worked with him for years expect that Musk will attempt to curb environmental regulations — including those that affect his companies.


A video provided by a former Tesla staffer shows runoff flowing into the Colorado River near the Tesla plant in Austin.


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[Old Crank]

1. Don't stand in the way of John Galt...

The takers don't need clean air or water..

That needs to be criminal.