Environmental stewardship is much more than merely low-emissions power, as Tesla is finding out in Germany. German environmentalists assert a proposed Tesla assembly plant outside Berlin would put unacceptable strains on German water supplies and require the leveling of ecologically valuable forest land. Tesla, which rides environmental messaging as a primary marketing tool, is responding by claiming water availability and forest conservation are overblown environmental concerns.

As reported by Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-gigafactory-germany-protests/youre-stealing-our-water-germans-protest-against-tesla-gigafactory-idUSKBN1ZH0KM), approximately 250 people protested outside Berlin after a Brandenburg water association warned construction and operation of the plant would cause “extensive and serious problems with the drinking water supply and wastewater disposal.”

“I am not against Tesla … But it’s about the site; in a forest area that is a protected wildlife zone. Is this necessary?” environmentalist Anne Bach told Reuters.

Deforestation has long been a problem in Germany and throughout Europe. Conservationists warn that clearing ecologically crucial forest land for the Tesla plant is destructive, unnecessary, and sets a bad precedent.

Musk responded by tweeting, “this is not a natural forest — it was planted for use as cardboard.”

A recently published study by CFACT senior policy advisor Paul Driessen, “Protecting the Environment from the Green New Deal,” (https://www.heartland.org/_template-assets/documents/publications/EnviHarmsPB.pdf) documents how wind power, solar power and other climate activist priorities frequently cause more environmental harm than they solve.

Leveling scarce German forest land and harming German water quality and quantity appear to be just such an example.