Paint this ironic: Tesla is sued for pollution

Yes, there’s no exhaust belching out of their tailpipes. In fact, they don’t even have tailpipes. Teslas, that is.

So it came as an extreme irony last week when Elon Musk’s motor company was sued for causing pollution. No, it wasn’t from the firm’s cars; rather, the nonprofit Environmental Democracy Project accused the EV giant of violating the federal Clean Air Act hundreds of times by letting its Fremont, Calif., factory emit harmful pollutants.

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The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, adds to pressure on Tesla to improve air quality surrounding the Fremont plant, its main U.S. factory. For instance, on May 2, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District said it wanted an independent hearing board to order the company to reduce the emissions from its paint shop. It also said that Tesla’s emissions abatement system breaks down “repeatedly,” and the automaker has since 2019 racked up 112 notices of violation , each accounting for as much as 750 pounds of illegal air pollution.

Emissions from the plant, according to CNBC , are the result of equipment that frequently breaks down, allowing effluents to vent directly into the air without proper filtration, regulators have said. Additionally, Tesla employees or contractors have allegedly shut off air pollution controls in the factory, particularly when the company was having trouble with other paint shop equipment.

It’s not the first time Tesla has been in pollution peril — in February, the company agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit by 25 California counties that claimed it mishandled hazardous waste at locations across the state. And in 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency fined it $275,000, saying the company had failed to measure, track and maintain records about its own emissions or to minimize air pollutants from painting operations at the facility.

Will Elon get his act together? Maybe when he has finished his current firing spree .

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