Published on: January 8, 2025, 02:02h. 

Last updated on: January 8, 2025, 02:20h.

Working in the darkness beneath the Las Vegas Strip didn’t keep Elon Musk’s The Boring Co. out of sight of a new investigation into the environmental, health, and safety violations it has so far committed during the construction of the Vegas Loop transportation system.

Initially envisioned as a people-mover between different areas of the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Vegas Loop is now expanding to cover 68 miles with 104 stops from the airport to downtown. It consists of individual Tesla cars transporting 2-3 people at a time at an average speed of 30 mph.

Locals disparagingly refer to them as “Tesla tunnels.”

Based largely on Freedom of Information Act requests, the investigation, authored by journalists and Dayvid Figler for ProPublica, found several previously unreported violations of building and environmental regulations by Boring, including:

1. A 2019 citation for discharging groundwater into storm drains without a permit, which resulted in a $90K fine from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection
2. A 2022 citation by local officials for illegally connecting to a sewer without approval, with no fine assessed
3. A 2023 finding by Clark County that Boring tunneled without permits to work on county property, after which the county allowed the company to file for the permits retroactively and pay a $900 fine for each one.
4. A 2024 violation resulting from an unsecured Boring truck that spilled hazardous material all over the I-15 — closing it down for four hours during rush hour — which resulted in a fine of only $75 (that’s with no K) to the driver.

ProPublica‘s investigation also uncovered a video, shot by a Clark County Water Reclamation District employee, showing wastewater spilling from a Vegas Loop construction site onto the street near UNLV this June, and a similar complaint from a Las Vegas Water District employee in August.

The county’s response to both complaints was to issue cease-and-desist letters but no fines.

These violations come on top of the eight previously reported serious safety violations found by the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in 2023. In that case, 15-20 Boring employees had their skin badly burned by hazardous chemicals while connecting hoses.  (OSHA defines “serious” violations as associated with a “substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could occur.”)

Boring was fined $112K for those violations.

Fine by Him

Of course, to the world’s richest man, especially when he seeks to prove he can follow through on his word to build whatever he promises, $90K and $112K fines are mere subway tokens.

So, ProPublica found, The Boring Co. continues violating regulations —  and paying fines for doing so — with the full backing of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), the quasi-governmental marketing agency with which it inked a contract to co-operate the Vegas Loop in 2019. (The Boring Co. manages day-to-day operations, while the LVCVA plays roles in funding, strategic planning, and providing the political support necessary for Boring to achieve its goals.)

“Environmental regulations are in my view largely terrible,” Musk said during an interview at a Buenos Aires political conference in June.

You have to get permission in advance, as opposed to say, paying a penalty if you do something wrong, which I think would be much more effective,” he said. “To say, ‘Look, we’re going to do this project. If something goes wrong, then we’ll be forced to pay a penalty.’ But we do not need to go through a three- or four-year environmental approval process.”

Equally troubling is how the Vegas Loop has managed to avoid the standard public review sessions. ProPublica reported that Musk’s company hid behind confusing fake names that served to keep concerned citizens at home during relevant Clark County Commission meetings.

When agendas for those meetings were issued, they didn’t list “Boring Co.” or “Vegas Loop” but LLCs with names such as UC-23-0126-HCI-CERBERUS 160 EAST FLAMINGO HOTEL OWNER L P, UC-20-0547-CLAUDINE PROPCO, LLC, and UC-20-0547-CIRCUS CIRCUS LV, LLC, ProPublica found.

Currently, five of the Vegas Loop’s proposed 68 miles are complete and operational.