Nevada legislators blast Elon Musk-owned Boring Company over safety and environmental violations

Some of the safety issues discussed at the hearing, including that two firefighters were burned by chemicals during a training drill and that an enormous concrete bin had collapsed in front of the Las Vegas Convention Center, and issues with oversight were first disclosed to the public in stories by Fortune.

“I’m concerned that breaking the law and breaking the rules has essentially just become a cost of doing business for companies in Musk’s orbit,” committee chair Howard Watts, a Democrat, said as he convened the meeting. Watts noted that Boring Company had fought every violation that had been levied against the company since 2019.

The committee had slated time on the agenda for Boring Company representatives to testify and answer questions, but no representative from the startup showed up to the hearing. Boring sent a notice to the committee on Sunday evening, saying that it would be “unable to attend” and offering a seven-page response to a request for information that the committee had sent in advance. The response described the startup’s safety team, referred the committee to materials Nevada OSHA had published, and shared “highlights” of the safety of its system.

The company’s absence drew heavy criticism from two Democratic members of the committee, who referred to the company as a “known bad actor” and a “repeat violator.”

“I’m incredibly disappointed that a company valued at $7 billion that has a team of government affairs and lobbyists were unable to make the time today for us to ask those questions—to make sure that our communities are protected from environmental disasters,” Democratic state Sen. Rochelle Nguyen said. “We don’t want to wait until it’s beyond chemical burns or our community’s water is poisoned. We want to make sure that we can do what we can now.” 

Chair Watts said that Boring Company’s written response “barely addressed the information that we requested from them.”

While Boring Company did not attend the hearing, representatives from Nevada’s Division of Industrial Relations and Department of Business and Industry testified, as did representatives from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP). The agencies answered detailed questions about inspections and enforcement efforts aimed at the Boring Company over the last several years and defended their regulatory approach. Nevada’s safety regulators acknowledged the agency did not follow its best practices during an inspection into the firefighter burns and said it had implemented new policies and procedures.

“This is a very unique project,” said Jennifer Carr, administrator of NDEP. “It is moving fast. It has expanded into a number of areas of town. Most of our permits are static facilities, and so we are also challenged with just the nature of the project. But my staff have stepped up admirably to ensure that we are looking at what’s important along the way.”

The Governor’s Office, which Fortune reported had been looped in by the Boring Company when the company was cited after firefighters were injured in its tunnels, declined to send a representative to the hearing in a letter.

Members of the committee stated that they hoped to get information out to the public about recent high-profile incidents and make sure that state agencies were positioned to regulate the Boring Company adequately to prevent future violations. 

“I see this hearing today not just about innovation versus regulation, but about whether our systems of review for enforcement and accountability are functioning as intended, whether or not they are strong enough to protect workers, first responders, and the public when the stakes are high like they are in this circumstance,” Senator Nguyen said. She added: “We don’t want to wait until it’s beyond chemical burns or our community’s water is poisoned. We want to make sure that we can do what we can now.”