German state Brandenburg’s ministry of environment claims that Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) has been building holding tanks in their Gigafactory without permission.
Unauthorized Activities
This illegal building activity in their planned factory site in Brandenburg costed Tesla to pay the fine. The electric car company Tesla built three Chemical holding tanks without asking permission from the environmental ministry. Following this issue, state inspectors visited the construction site to investigate any other illegal work happening on July 9.
Initially, Tesla has announced it will open Gigafactory on July 1. But now they rescheduled the opening to later this year. However, the Brandenburg Ministry hasn’t given out permission for all the construction plans Tesla submitted. So, this schedule could also be postponed.
Tesla is building this Gigafactory for 5.8 billion dollars. Last month the construction team revised the plans and included one battery production amenity, the largest facility in the world.
Why People Oppose this Project?
Tesla announced this project back in 2019, centered in Gruenheide, 30 KM from Berlin City. Many environmental groups opposed and protested to cancel the factory project. Meanwhile, the company has been complaining about the ministries to get all the needed permits.
Ever since the project started, controversies took over that they take excess water (using 1.42 m cubic meters per year) and endangering wildlife conservation and causing deforestation. However, Tesla has plans to build a water recycling facility to get energy from renewable sources.
Elon Musk Answer
Elon Musk visited the Gigafactory construction in May and expressed his impatience with the ministry and felt it could’ve been less complicated. In reply to the complaint about water usage, he said they are not building a plant in a desert. After which, the environmental ministry announced they might face severe drought in June.
Once the plant is opened, it will provide almost 12,000 jobs and produce 500,000 cars per year. But, unfortunately, Berlin has been economically week for the past few decades, so the politicians stand by Tesla’s side to change it.
Final Words
The Brandenburg environmental ministry runs a consultation process with the citizens about the construction plans with everything stand. Previously in one such process, the ministry received almost 400 complaints.
