Hacker News Reader

Comment by stetrain | Hacker News Reader

From what I've seen Tesla is trying to push through this factory from land acquisition to first production at an extraordinarily fast pace.

These projects usually take many years and Tesla tried to basically do it in one and is annoyed that it is stretching out to two.

In the big picture 2-3 years to get a new large auto factory online is pretty normal. There are definitely some parallels to SpaceX in Boca Chica, TX. They both are hitting regulatory delays, but stepping back it seems they are the result of intentionally trying to "move fast and break things" with their development timelines.

View on HN

That is definitely the case in Boca Chica, TX and there may even be a conflict of interests with the environmental assessment being used instead of the full environmental study. SpaceX is going way beyond what was originally permitted by the FAA.

Edit: Citation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bdkcoiFaN0

What is "way beyond"? They're permitted for a 27 engine kerosene rocket, they want to switch to a 33 engine methane rocket. A kerosene spill is much worse locally than a methane spill since methane evaporates.

They're hoping to add a 250MW power plant which would be a major change but that would be part of a different environmental assessment.

Citation needed -- and that silly TechCrunch article isn't a citation.

They raised a howl because the plans say they will start on a power plant, whose impact is considered -- but 'oh my goodness, where will the gas come from? A well? Trucks? Oh my!'

Well -- that literally may not be known yet, as is when and whether they'd get close to running it at anything like capacity.

And that's not a problem; Texas has power plant regulators, and pipelines have their own paperwork and process.

The FAA regulating this is a bit funny anyway. :) Eventually that'll change, but right now they're doing a good job handling these weird corners of their responsibility with grace.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com