Tesla, best known as the automaker that is supposedly saving the planet and/or mankind, depending on what type of Musk-cult-member you’re talking to that day, has been officially ordered by a German court to stop cutting down trees on a site it is clearing for its first car plant in Germany.
Because, as we all know, you can’t save the Earth without a little deforestation in the process.
The top administrative court in the Berlin-Brandenburg region issued a temporary ban to stop the cutting down of trees after two environmentalist groups appealed a lower court’s decision to allow it, according to AP. We have been documenting the battle between these groups and Tesla for months.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk had previously said of the forest: “This is not a natural forest — it was planted for use as cardboard & only a small part will be used for GF4.”
The court has said that the ban would last until a decision is made on the appeal that has been filed by the groups. The groups have claimed that there are animals living in the forest that have not yet been safely resettled prior to Tesla’s “clearing of trees” across 200 acres.
The groups are worried most about “sand lizards and smooth snakes”, which are both protected species in Germany, they wrote in their appeal.
Meanwhile, Tesla has planned to open the factory next year at some point and the halt in land clearing could throw a wrench in the company’s gears. With that being said, Tesla is no stranger to missing timelines (by a mile), so we’re sure that even if the factory is delayed, no one will notice and the sell side will still find an excuse to upgrade the company’s stock.
