Fremont parents score a win in Tesla’s bid to increase emissions
Last month, outraged parents at a Fremont elementary school accused the Bay Area Air District of not properly warning them about potential increased emissions at a neighboring Tesla factory. On Monday, they scored a small victory.
The air district announced that it would reopen its public comment period on Tesla’s recent application to increase emissions, admitting that it unnecessarily redacted information in a draft evaluation of Tesla’s plans. The move follows SFGATE’s reporting last month that the air district redacted previously public information about Tesla’s machinery in an evaluation of the company’s proposal, including the rules the agency could impose. Community members now have until Nov. 13 to comment on Tesla’s application.
Air district officials published a revised report on Monday correcting these redactions, explaining that the agency withheld some pieces of information because Tesla said they were “trade secrets.” However, since they were previously made public, they can’t be considered trade secrets, the agency wrote. Agency officials also added new sections to the report for clarity, including a summary of the 64-page document and a chart displaying the current and estimated emissions of toxic pollutants.
The air district plans to hold a webinar next Monday to discuss the project with community members. SFGATE asked the agency who would be speaking at the event and for a copy of an agenda, but it did not respond before the time of publication. It also did not respond to SFGATE’s questions about the decision to reopen public comment.
In September, the Fremont Unified School District alerted parents at the Lila Bringhurst Elementary School that it was assisting the air district in distributing a notice. The notification did not mention that Tesla asked to increase emissions, only that it would “modify” them and install a new abatement system. Parent Jenny Lin told SFGATE last month that this phrasing felt like the agency was “obfuscating.”
Days before the Oct. 5 public comment deadline, an anonymously published Substack article started making the rounds in parent group chats, stirring alarm. The article detailed Tesla’s request to increase emissions and calculated an estimated thirteenfold increase in total suspended particulates, which are tiny, solid particles that can linger in the air.
A Change.org petition, which gained more than 1,000 signatures by the original deadline, demanded an extension on the public comment period because parents felt they were misled, but that extension did not come until almost a month after the deadline had passed.
Contact tech reporter Matthew Brown at [email protected] or matthewbrownsfgate.11 on Signal.
