- The Environmental Democracy Project has sued Tesla for violating the Clean Air Act at its Fremont plant.
- The automaker has received hundreds of Notices of Violation from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District since 2019 over its polluting paint shop.
- In its suit, the Environmental Democracy Project is seeking over $120,000 per day that the automaker violated emissions rules.
When you hear that an automaker is violating the Clean Air Act, you could be forgiven for not immediately thinking of EV manufacturer Tesla. However, according to a lawsuit from the Environmental Democracy Project, that’s exactly what the company’s Fremont plant has been doing since at least January 2021.
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In a complaint, the environmental nonprofit accuses Tesla of exposing workers and residents near its California manufacturing facility to excessive amounts of nitrogen oxides, arsenic, cadmium, and other harmful products through its paint shop.
Read: Tesla Slapped With Fine For Polluting – Not With Its Cars, But Its Fremont Plant
Lest you think this is just an environmental group going after Tesla to get some attention, there may be worrying merit to this case. On May 2, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) announced that it was seeking an order to stop what it described as “frequent” and “recurring” air quality violations at the plant.
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“Tesla has emitted harmful precursor organic compounds and toxic air contaminants directly into the atmosphere without proper abatement, resulting in 112 Notices of Violation since 2019,” the regional pollution control agency wrote. “Each of these violations can emit as much as 750 pounds of illegal air pollution, according to some estimates.”
The BAAQMD said that the violations resulted from a number of causes, including repeated breakdowns of Tesla’s thermal oxidizer, which can cause emissions from its paint shop to vent directly into the atmosphere without proper abatement.
The automaker is no stranger to accusations that its plants harm the surrounding environment. In Germany, Tesla was accused of polluting nearby residents’ drinking water, while closer to home it agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit in which 25 California counties claimed it had mishandled hazardous waste.
The Environmental Democracy Project said it was filing its complaint against the automaker as a citizen, reports Reuters. It is seeking an injunction to halt excess pollution, as well as civil fines of up to $121,275 per day that it violated the clean air act.
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