Tesla Is California’s Second-Biggest Air Polluter

“Nothing says ‘green car company’ quite like being worse for air quality than every company in the state of California except for Chevron,” writes Collin Woodard in Jalopnik.

This is the case for Tesla, whose Fremont, California factory “violated air-pollution permits at its Fremont factory 112 times over the past five years and alleged it repeatedly failed to fix equipment designed to reduce emissions, releasing thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals in excess of permissible limits into the surrounding communities,” according to a recent Wall Street Journal article. “Their investigation found that not only were corporate bosses aware the Texas factory was polluting outside of regulations and that employees expressed fear they would lose their jobs if they reported environmental issues.”

Meanwhile, in Texas, the company removed itself from Austin’s jurisdiction to get around water pollution standards. “Sometimes during rainstorms, Tesla discharged a sludgy mix of mud and chemicals from occasional spills outside the plant, turning a ¾ mile stretch of the Colorado River into a mucky brown slick, according to pictures and videos viewed by the Journal.”