Negotiation in Brandenburg: dispute over the gigafactory: the great debate with Tesla ends in chaos

SUlrich Stock is in a bad mood after just five minutes. “Ms Schröder, if you are not calm now, I will have the microphone turned off,” the head of the technical department for environmental protection at the Brandenburg Environment Agency told the microphone. But Ms Schröder from Naturschutzbund (Nabu) continues to complain. How is it possible that “this event” is not broadcast on the Internet? How can it be that not all complainants can express their opinions?

“This event” is probably the biggest economic showdown the small community of Erkner in south-east Berlin has experienced in its 441-year history. This Wednesday, at the Stadthalle, a low-rise mustard yellow building, America’s visions respond to Brandenburg’s nature conservation concerns.

After months of delay due to the corona pandemic, the big day has arrived. In the multipurpose room, where Andy Borg often puts Brandenburg gossip into a coma, opponents of the planned Tesla factory in Grünheide argue with the automaker and the responsible state authorities over the building permit for the first “Gigafactory” of the American company on European soil.

In reality, around 12,000 employees are supposed to assemble up to half a million electric cars in Brandenburg each year by the summer of 2021. But the environmental permit is still missing for completion. Therefore, Tesla has been working on its new location for months at its own risk.

Because only when all objections have been heard, can the construction request be decided. But the road will be long, and after a few minutes in the well-packed town hall, it is clear: Ms. Schröder from Nabu is the smallest problem for discussion.

A total of 116 critics of the factory have gathered in the city hall, in addition to Tesla employees and the authorities involved, seven of them from various water protection agencies. From the ranks of the critics, all well-known organizations and environmental lobbyists are in place: the Federation for Conservation of the Environment and Nature (Bund), the Association for Conservation of Nature, the Grünheide and Rüdersdorf citizen initiatives and the Association for Landscape Management and Species Protection in Bavaria, whatever Grünheide has to look for.

At least that feeds the hope of a substantive discussion. Because a total of 414 objections to the factory building have been received. Printed and available as a short version on 153 pages in an Excel table, in A3 format, of course.

But when the first item on the agenda begins with the objectors’ presentation, it becomes clear: Tesla’s opponents don’t just want to argue, they mainly look for trouble and desperately cling to any drops that might stop factory construction.

“Who gave my name to the police?” Shouts a “retired geologist” into the microphone in his presentation. He was reportedly told by three police officers that “it shouldn’t cause a problem.” Long applause in the hall.

Just an hour after the hearing started, the agenda has not yet been completed, but the event has already been interrupted. The reason: critics want to get rid of Ulrich Stock, chairman of the meeting; it was biased.

This had previously been requested by Uwe Hiksch, the deputy director of Friends of Nature Berlin, claiming that the meeting chairman had already revealed the outcome of the discussion to the Berlin-Brandenburg radio station. According to information from RBB, Stock actually stated on September 4:

“As things stand now, we cannot identify any fundamental obstacles to approval, even on the basis of the objections raised.” That is not enough to be discarded, it is clear 20 minutes later. A hastily commissioned lawyer in Frankfurt cannot see any bias. “The statement must be viewed in the general context of the proceeding.” Boos.

Great progress in construction

In fact, it seemed that the planned factory calmed down with each construction progress. Tesla boss Elon Musk took a photo of the construction site in September. “You can see how fast the progress is,” he said. At the beginning of the year, it was difficult to imagine how fast the construction of the factory would go.

It is mainly made up of precast concrete parts. 14 meter high concrete pillars protrude from the ground for the main building. The exterior facade of the converter manufacturing hall is in place. According to the head of the “Gigafactory”, Evan Horetsky, the factory is 20 percent ready.

The Strausberg-Erkner water association approved the development application for Tesla’s plant on Tuesday. Tesla had previously reduced the water requirement in the application, from 3.3 million cubic meters to just 1.4 million cubic meters per year.

How can you do that? “The Gigafactory is a dynamic project and it is not planned on the drawing board,” says one of the many Tesla employees: white shirt, green backpack for walking, does not want to read his name in public. A total of 20 representatives of the electrical pioneer came to Erkner: employees from Berlin and Amsterdam, southern Germany, the lobby team and the legal department, representatives of the planning offices that are going to build the factory.

He’s in a white party tent in the backyard of City Hall. Inside, 49 tables are arranged at a distance of 1.5 meters. The tent is full, except for the last place. This is where the media sit to accompany the discussion.

This company belongs “to an industrial wasteland”

Due to the pandemic, only objectors are allowed into City Hall. The public is excluded and transmission over the Internet is not planned. “We try to remove a lot of fears from people,” says the Tesla employee of the great presence.

But the concerns are not yet discussed. Because in the meantime Julia Neigel has become the “enfant terrible” of the audience. The 54-year-old singer speaks as loudly and furiously into the microphone, as if she’s on stage again, as she did when her single “Shadows on the Wall” disappeared at No. 30 on the charts.

He has written several petitions and fears negative consequences for drinking water. In the long term, the drought in Brandenburg “will have catastrophic environmental impacts for the region,” he said. This company belongs “in an industrial wasteland”.

Now he comes across the fact that Tesla has hired PRM Events to keep the minutes of the meeting. A lawyer considers it questionable and threatens to cancel the appointment. The president of the meeting, Stock, assures that Tesla will provide the order so that it can be verified if there is any influence. Criticism doesn’t break that: a sound recording must be kept in a “mailbox”.

To passersby, it can have a stale aftertaste that Tesla pays for the minutes of a meeting where Tesla is in the crossfire. But that is common in such discussions. And anyone who thinks the automaker is tampering with the minutes of a meeting attended by 50 journalists is debunking actual objections and sprinkling a sprinkle of conspiracy theory.

But that doesn’t matter either. Because it’s not about the objections. Instead, hitman Neigel continues to criticize the alleged missing correspondence and the organized killing of sand lizards by the Musk company. At 1:02 pm, session leader Stock finally turned off the microphone.

It’s about the beginning

“How you treated this woman is unacceptable to me. Therefore, I request that he be excluded from the discussion, ”the second request for partiality admitted minutes later.

Not a single objection has been discussed for more than three hours. An attorney asks when the lunch break will finally be planned.

The chair of the session, Ulrich Stock, resigned. “I don’t know if we’ll get to the nature conservation issue tomorrow.” He looks a bit like a school teacher who is playing a pretend game with his senior class that no one wants to do. Instead, students prefer to test the extent to which they provoke their teacher until he leaves the classroom in tears.

The next try: the environmental agency should break down the number of objectors that the various objections come from. There is no answer, the authority does not distinguish between objectors and objections. It doesn’t matter why that should be important anyway. At Erkner, it is no longer about content, but only about principle.

“I don’t want to discuss it anymore. There are ten requests to speak here, ”Stock finally groans into the microphone. “Does anyone else have another point?” They raise twice as many hands. “Oh God,” says the president.

Then it’s time for lunch. A visibly out of stock Ulrich Stock appears in front of the media. “That is a pretty unusual discussion,” he says. All schedules are over. “We actually wanted to discuss the water problem today,” but to establish a new schedule, it is seen that he is no longer in a position to do so.

If the process is not completed by Friday, a new date should be scheduled and publicly announced. It could take weeks or months. Because if the three planned days of discussion are enough? Stick takes a deep breath and shakes his head wearily: “I’m not afraid.”