"[The] company agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle the suit"
Lords, this is how easy it is to get away with it? There's no incentive for them to stop then, because disposing of this waste would surely cost more and it's not like they're environmentalists who would prioritise nature over carmaking. Seems especially egregious compared to the GM settlement mentioned in the article - at $773 million.
First offences for both corporations and people are almost always very light compared to subsequent offences. As part of the settlement they would have signed something promising not to do it again. The disincentive is the realization that they won't get off so easy the next time.
> By the end of 2021 it had racked up 12 new violations, and over the course of 2022 it racked up another 28, barely breaking stride for a $275,000 federal settlement that similarly touted EPA’s “compliance monitoring” as having “returned [Tesla] to compliance.” Over the course of 2023, Tesla received a whopping 76 notices of violation of the Clean Air Act.
And now we are finding they are poisoning the groundwater with a litany of chemicals ranging from bad to extremely horrible (Benzene, Ethylbenzene, TCE, PCE, Arsenic, and 1,4 dioxane).
> Seems especially egregious compared to the GM settlement mentioned in the article - at $773 million
Maybe the scale, duration, impact and response were different? As I said in the other comment this story appears to be about Tesla service centers' waste, and the GM issue you mentioned is about manufacturing facilities.
> The United States alleged in bankruptcy filings that Old GM operated an aluminum diecasting plant on the Massena property from 1959 to 2009, and that Old GM disposed of hazardous substances including polycholorinated biphenyls (also known as PCBs) at the property
Long article but still only covering such a modest bit of the problem. Tesla racked up dozens of clean air violations, got another slap on the wrist, and has since racked up a hundred more clean air violations. Tesla has dozens of mg of pollutants in the water around some of their spaces when the legal limit is 0.1 mg.
The previous submission It's the Impunity, Stupid doesn't go nearly as far into discussing how incredibly inappropriately & unseriously Tesla has taken waste disposal. But it covers these other topics. And, key, it has the appropriate level of contempt for how Tesla has never met with any real reckoning, how they have been a serial violator that seems to not care in the slightest. And it points out how ridiculous it is that we keep letting them get away with it, that they have never faced any consequences of concern. https://niedermeyer.io/2024/02/02/its-the-impunity-stupidhttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39235146
> Other automakers have terrible track records with hazardous waste. GM agreed to pay a $773 million settlement in 2010 with the US, 14 states, and the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe over “environmental liabilities” including hazardous waste at its properties.
> In 2022, New Jersey sued Ford for dumping toxic paint sludge and contaminating “hundreds of acres of soil, water, wetlands” and state-recognized tribal lands of the Ramapough Lenape Nation.
A fine of a three quarters of a billion seems like a lot. Sounds like the issues were with GM factories vs Tesla's issue in only the service centers? Would square with Tesla's fine being only $1.5 Million.
This sounds like they have a vendetta against Tesla and are going through the trash and processing fines for empty brake fluid bottles. People are defecating in the streets but that is just part of the culture and not an environmental problem.
Lords, this is how easy it is to get away with it? There's no incentive for them to stop then, because disposing of this waste would surely cost more and it's not like they're environmentalists who would prioritise nature over carmaking. Seems especially egregious compared to the GM settlement mentioned in the article - at $773 million.