Tesla must fix air quality problems at its electric vehicle manufacturing facility in the San Francisco Bay Area after racking up more than 100 violations for allegedly releasing toxic emissions into the atmosphere over the last five years.
Tesla must fix air quality problems at its electric vehicle manufacturing facility in the San Francisco Bay Area after racking up more than 100 violations for allegedly releasing toxic emissions into the atmosphere over the last five years, an air quality board said Tuesday.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District planned to issue a written abatement order later this week after Tuesday’s announcement. Each of the 112 violations can emit hundreds of pounds of illegal air pollution, the board said.
The plant is in the city of Fremont, in the East Bay, and the agency’s independent hearing board pointed to the facility’s paint shop operations as a specific problem. The board has ordered Tesla to hire an independent consultant and develop a proposed implementation plan for approval, which it then must execute to stop the toxic emissions.
In this day and age there needs to be a non-corporate independent panel that categorizes by type and sets a steep price on each lb or kg of air pollution.
That way when this shit happens they get hit with a bill high enough it can't be just added to the business as operating costs.
Give them x days to pay and charge interest like a corp would do to normal people. Having the gov't back this panel would be better.
Pass laws locally in the areas these plants exist and start there.
We have a toothless EPA that can determine the problems. Every time they attempt to impose a fine, more power is taken from them. The newly conservative SCOTUS took power plant regulations out of their control just two years ago.
Unfortunately, a lot of the times restaurants are allowed to continue to operate even with serious health code violations as long as they promise to fix them before the checkup visit. It's rare that they get shut down on the spot.
Just look at what happened when they tried that during COVID. Elon is a loud idiot who'll screech about how he's being oppressed, and unfortunately still has a lot of equally loud idiots as followers who will gladly harass the underpaid government employees who actually have to enforce the shutdown on his behalf.
I honestly don't know why anyone would manufacture/paint vehicles in a place with VOC regulations in the first place, and with their history of smog California has some strict VOC regulations.
You can use low VOC paint and institute capture systems all you want, but if you're doing it on an industrial scale that "low VOC" paint will add up real quick.