Tesla very much wants you to think that it’s the cleaner alternative to those dirty, polluting gas cars. When you bought a Model S, you were helping save the planet, they said. However, Tesla hasn’t at all times done the perfect job complying with local environmental regulations, and in response to the Houston Chronicle, it’s using a brand new state law to get its Texas factory faraway from Austin’s environmental authority.
The factory, which is situated outside of Austin, Texas near town’s airport, was a part of town’s “extraterritorial jurisdiction,” meaning Austin environmental laws still applied. Considering its location on the Colorado River, it is smart that town has strong regulations to maintain its water clean and forestall flooding. Unlike Austin, Travis County’s environmental regulations are more lax.
The city has since confirmed to the Houston Chronicle that Tesla did request “for land associated with Tesla’s operations” to be faraway from Austin’s extraterritorial jurisdiction and that it met the necessities to accomplish that. “Releasing properties from the ETJ does impact the city and future city residents,” town said in an announcement. “The city of Austin’s environmental regulations are more protective of water resources than unincorporated Travis County.”
The decision to go away Austin’s ETJ is ironic considering Musk initially claimed the factory would “basically be an ecological paradise – birds in the trees, butterflies, fish in the stream.” As Alexia Leclercq, policy director for People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources, told the Houston Chronicle, it’s also consistent with Tesla’s approach to protecting the environment because it began construction on the two,500-acre facility.
“They have this pattern of trying to have as few regulations apply to them as possible,” she said, emphasizing that the ecological paradise Musk initially promised is “nowhere to be found.”
Once faraway from Austin’s ETJ, it won’t be a free-for-all for Tesla, though. It will still need to comply with state regulations that limit how much it will possibly pollute the river and the extent to which it will possibly damage nearby wetlands. It is still Texas, though, so good luck with that, Austin.
Credit : jalopnik.com
