The door to a 30-foot-tall furnace at Tesla’s Austin factory has been left open for months, the Wall Street Journal reported. Former employees said the defect allowed contaminants to leak and temperatures to rise to 100 degrees. Elon Musk’s company has recently faced growing scrutiny over environmental violations.
workers of teslaAustin factory I was told that I have According to the Wall Street Journal, the 30-foot-tall furnace’s door did not close properly, leaving it exposed to temperatures as high as 100 degrees Fahrenheit and “constant fog.” reported Sunday night.
Anonymous former employees at the Texas plant told the newspaper that the doors were defective for several months while Elon Musk’s automaker was ramping up production of its 2022 Model Y SUV.
The memo sent to A whistleblower said he filed a report with the Environmental Protection Agency this year and reviewed it by the Journal. Tesla used an “elaborate tactic” to hide the problem from regulators.
Tesla adjusted the amount of fuel put into the furnaces that melt aluminum used to make car parts and temporarily closed the doors, the memo said.
This tactic appears to have helped Tesla pass emissions tests conducted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, according to a memo obtained by the magazine.
Tesla did not respond to requests for comment from the media and did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
This isn’t the first time Elon Musk’s company has come under intense scrutiny for its environmental impact.
SpaceX was fined about $150,000 in September for dumping wastewater into a wetland near its Texas launch site in 2022. In February, Tesla paid $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit accusing it of mishandling hazardous waste at its California factory.
In its Sunday report, the magazine also cited findings that Tesla was dumping toxin-laden wastewater from its Austin factory into local sewage systems.
Employees who raised warnings about environmental violations at the Austin plant were ignored and feared they would be fired, former employees told the Journal.
One employee reportedly said in a memo to the EPA that Tesla “repeatedly asked me to lie to the government” so that the company could operate without paying proper environmental management fees.
