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Elon Musk claims Tesla will leave

California, sue over coronavirus
order shutting down Fremont

31

factory
CEO lashes out at Alameda County health officer on
Twitter

FREMONT, CA – MARCH 18: A parking lot at Tesla’s Fremont factory is

seen in Fremont , Calif. on Wednesday, March 18, 2020. (Dai
Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

By NICO SAVIDGE | nsavidge@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group

PUBLISHED: May 9, 2020 at 10:47 a.m. | UPDATED: May 9, 2020 at 12:38 p.m.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk lashed out at Alameda County public health officials
Saturday on Twitter, claiming his car company will leave California and sue the
county over coronavirus lockdown orders that have shuttered its Fremont
factory.

“Tesla is filing a lawsuit against Alameda County immediately. The unelected &
ignorant ‘Interim Health Officer’ of Alameda is acting contrary to the Governor,
the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!” Musk
tweeted Saturday morning, referring to Health Officer Dr. Erica Pan.

He continued in another tweet, “Frankly, this is the final straw. Tesla will now
move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. If we even
retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependen (sic) on how
Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last carmaker left in CA.”

Elon Musk @elonmusk · 3h

Replying to @GerberKawasaki @thirdrowtesla
Tesla is filing a lawsuit against Alameda County immediately. The
unelected & ignorant “Interim Health Officer” of Alameda is acting
contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional
freedoms & just plain common sense!

Elon Musk
@elonmusk

Frankly, this is the final straw. Tesla will now move its HQ and
future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. If we even retain
Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependen on how
Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last carmaker left in
CA.
13.1K 9:44 AM - May 9, 2020

6,435 people are talking about this

Musk, who has 33.9 million Twitter followers, encouraged Tesla shareholders to
file a class-action lawsuit against Alameda County. And he continued to belittle
Pan, writing that “Tesla knows far more about what needs to be done to be safe
through our Tesla China factory experience than an (unelected) interim junior
official in Alameda County.”

It’s the latest development in a now months-long dispute between Tesla and
Alameda County health officers over whether the company can keep making
cars at the Fremont facility through the shelter-in-place order.
In mid-March, Tesla spent days arguing with the county over whether the car
company was considered an essential business under Bay Area shelter-in-place
orders instituted on March 16. The company later backed down and suspended
operations on March 23.

This week, Alameda County’s public health department shot down a plan Tesla
officials had announced to resume operations on Friday.

Musk’s tweets refer to a distinction that confused and frustrated several local
businesses as much of California begins emerging from coronavirus lockdowns:
While new state rules started allowing certain retail and manufacturing
businesses to resume operations on Friday, the guidelines don’t apply in the Bay
Area, where more stringent county orders keeping those businesses closed
remain in effect.

Tesla officials tried to contend that their company constitutes an “energy

distribution” manufacturer, which revised local orders allow to operate. But the
county shot down that argument.

“If a business does not meet the limited criteria stated in that Order to re-open,
then they are out of compliance,” county health department spokeswoman
Neetu Balram told this news organization in a statement Friday. “Tesla has been
informed that they do not meet those criteria and must not re-open.”

Neither Alameda County nor Tesla could be immediately reached for comment
Saturday morning.

Check back for updates.

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Tags: Business, Coronavirus, Elon Musk, Regional, Tesla

Nico Savidge | Reporter Nico Savidge is a reporter covering

transportation for The Mercury News and East Bay Times. A
graduate of the University of Wisconsin, he previously wrote for
EdSource, the Wisconsin State Journal and The Janesville Gazette.
He commutes by foot, car, BART, bus and ride-hailing app --
sometimes all in one day.
 nsavidge@bayareanewsgroup.com

 Follow Nico Savidge @NSavidge

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