- Tesla’s gigafactory exterior Austin will not need to comply with the town’s environmental laws.
- The EV firm was granted an exemption because of a brand new state legislation.
- Elon Musk has mentioned the property can be an “ecological paradise,” however Tesla has a historical past of violating the surroundings.
Tesla’s huge gigafactory exterior Austin, Texas will now not need to comply with native environmental laws, because of a current state legislation.
Tesla’s 2,500-acre property, which incorporates its 10-million-square-foot electrical car gigafactory, is in unincorporated land on the outskirts of Austin.
Regardless of not being immediately within the metropolis, most of that land was nonetheless a part of Austin’s “extraterritorial jurisdiction” (ETJ), which allowed the town to manage developments exterior its limits.
In February, Tesla utilized for an exemption from Austin’s ETJ, which the town’s Planning Division authorized in March.
The exemption was first reported by the Austin Enterprise Journal this week.
The exemption was attainable because of a brand new state legislation that went into impact in September and permits landowners to request to be faraway from jurisdictions in order that they’ll develop land with fewer laws.
A number of cities within the state have already sued to dam the legislation, together with Grand Prairie, which argued in a submitting that the legislation will damage the town’s capability to guard the well being, security, and welfare of those that dwell in and round its borders.
However beneath the legislation, cities do not have a lot leeway to disclaim a landowner’s request, Austin’s director of planning beforehand mentioned, in accordance with the Austin Enterprise Journal.
Tesla’s ETJ exemption will allow the electrical car firm to additional develop its land with out having to comply with the town’s environmental restrictions, which an Austin metropolis spokesperson acknowledged may hurt locals.
“Releasing properties from the ETJ impacts the City because development in the ETJ is subject to limited subdivision regulation as well as regulation of water quality and flooding issues,” Shelley Parks, an Austin metropolis spokesperson, mentioned in a press release to Enterprise Insider. “All affect people in both the ETJ and the City itself.”
Tesla didn’t reply to a request for remark from Enterprise Insider.
When the Texas gigafactory was nonetheless beneath development earlier than its 2022 opening, Elon Musk promised it might be an “ecological paradise” with strolling trails for the general public alongside the neighboring Colorado River.
Musk’s firms have had points with environmental laws prior to now, nevertheless. In February, Tesla settled a lawsuit accusing them of mishandling hazardous waste in California. In the meantime, the Boring Firm has been accused of letting untreated wastewater drain into the Colorado River.