Elon Musk to Reopen California Car Plant in Defiance of County Orders

Karl Manke to get hi-profile company

Editor’s note: Musk has profited handsomely from Tesla being the darling of anti-human eco cultists and consequentially of the state. Now he risks his relationship with both, over what can only be seen as a matter of principle. Restarting production a few days or weeks earlier than otherwise, can’t possibly be worth potentially risking all that goodwill and the subsidies they net him, yet he’s chosen to take a stand (or flex his muscles if that’s how you see it) nonetheless. 


Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday confirmed earlier reports that the company had resumed production despite local shelter-in-place orders designed to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

“Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules,” he said in a tweet. “I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.”

Earlier on Monday, three employees told Business Insider that Tesla asked employees to return to work with phone calls and text messages. If they choose not to return, the workers said, they risk losing their jobs. [Obviously. If you don’t want to do the work, make room for someone who will. Nobody is forced to become an Alaska fisherman or a logger, and nobody is forced to hold a car-making job during a “pandemic”.]

It wasn’t immediately clear if or how local authorities would respond. Only essential businesses are allowed to operate in California. Musk has repeatedly said Tesla should be considered essential.

Earlier on Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he expected Tesla to start up operations by next week.

“My understanding is they have had some very constructive conversations,” he said in a video press conference. “My belief and hope and expectation is as early as next week, they will be able to resume.”

Musk later thanked Newsom in a tweet for saying he has “long been an advocate, supporter, and adopter” of the company’s technology.

For weeks, Musk has expressed increasing frustration with the shutdown of Tesla’s main car factory in Fremont, California. On an April 29 conference call, he said the shutdown should be viewed as a “serious risk” to Tesla’s business before going on a profanity-laden tirade about how the shutdowns were antithetical to the principles America was founded on.

In response to a lawsuit filed Saturday, local officials in Alameda County said they were engaging with the company in good faith to balance business needs with local safety.

“The team at Tesla has been responsive to our guidance and recommendations, and we look forward to coming to an agreement on an appropriate safety plan very soon,” it said. “We need to continue to work together so those sacrifices don’t go to waste and that we maintain our gains. It is our collective responsibility to move through the phases of reopening and loosening the restrictions of the Shelter-in-Place Order in the safest way possible, guided by data and science.”

Source: Business Insider
3 Comments
  1. cechas vodobenikov says

    beware the covid storm troopers

  2. voza0db says

    The sad part, but also the funniest, is that it is Elon Musk – of all people – that is raging against the Bill ‘The Genocidal’ Gates & Friends OPERATION COVID.

    This does TELL A GREAT LOT on how the vast majority of the Herd of Morons are really Ignorant and Irresponsible…

    Watching Elon Musk being ANTI-EMPIRE (even if he only cares about himself) is the show of the YEAR.

    For those that still believe very weak RNA “SARS-CoV-2” is going to KILL YOU, CDC just issued a new important bulletin!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f9ab25581bea4ff09a831019e8437ce0fd97d99dc30dd62e10d421608785e7a7.png

  3. ke4ram says

    The man is scum,,, BUT,,, in this case he is 100 percent correct. The got damned county has no legal authority to close businesses putting many out of business. They have no legal authority to lock healthy people down. They need to be removed from office, tried and punished.

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