Tesla recently won approval to begin clearing the trees at the future site of Gigafactory Berlin.
But just as work began, Reuters is reporting the California automaker was forced to suspend their clearing efforts. This was after a complaint was filed with the courts by a local environmentalist group named Gruene Liga Brandenburg (Green League of Brandenburg).
Since the tree clearing should only take about 3 days to complete, a stop order was issued by the courts. If they had waited to hear the arguments from the complainant, the site would have already been cleared.
Local lawmakers are fearful that the legal battle being waged against Tesla’s plans to build a Gigafactory on the site of a tree farm. They say it could result in Germany not being viewed favourably as a place to do business.
While Tesla did receive permission to begin clearing the site, they have yet to be granted planning permission. If that approval never comes, Tesla’s work up to that point would be for nothing, though it is doubtful a denial would ever happen.
Tesla is rushing to complete the site preparations before mid-March. If the court delays Tesla’s efforts and that deadline is missed, the project could be delayed a further 6-9 months due to the local wildlife breeding period through spring and summer.
