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American electric car maker Tesla may continue to build at its planned factory construction site in Grünheide, near Berlin. Brandenburg has agreed with Tesla a longer deadline until January 15 to pay a guarantee deposit of 100 million euros for possible decommissioning costs, the Ministry of the Environment informed the German Press Agency on Wednesday. Conservationists were horrified afterward.
The ministry also said the company had guaranteed safeguards for all anticipated building permits in a comfort clause. Tesla had not provided the security deposit prior to December 17 after advance approval for clearing forests and installing machines. Then the work ceased, the state initially only extended the deadline until January 4. The dpa had received the letter from the state environmental agency to Tesla.
Conservation associations criticized the government. “Taking such a serious decision shortly before the Christmas holidays is no longer understandable for the two nature conservation associations, Nabu and Green League,” representatives of the association Christiane Schröder and Michael Ganschow said on Thursday. “The associations find it particularly shocking that the technical supervision of the Ministry of the Environment is exercised in favor of economic interests.”
Schröder and Ganschow refer to a sentence in the letter from the State Environment Agency on Wednesday, in which it is stated that the further construction of the factory no longer has to be linked to the condition that a deposit has actually been provided security for possible dismantling. “As part of the exercise of discretion, the State Environment Secretariat has also taken into account a corresponding directive from the supervisory authority,” he said there.
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Federal President of the Green Democratic Party (ÖDP), Christian Rechholz, accused the State Environment Agency of cheating on Wednesday night. “At the last minute, when the trees are being cleared for Christmas Eve, the newspapers are in print and everyone is mentally on Christmas vacation, the authorities allow Tesla to continue building quietly,” he criticized. “This approach is a big mess.” (dpa)
