TSLA Tesla Inc

By Tim Higgins

The back-and-forth between Tesla Inc. and local authorities over production at the Silicon Valley car maker's lone U.S. assembly plant flared up again Friday.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk late this week told workers that the Fremont, Calif., factory would resume production after Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state government would allow some businesses to emerge from shelter-in-place restrictions imposed in March. Local authorities for the county, where the factory is located, however, are taking a more conservative approach to reopening the Bay Area and pushed back against Mr. Musk's plans.

"Tesla has been informed that they do not meet those criteria and must not reopen," an Alameda County Public Health Department spokeswoman said in a statement released Friday, hours after Mr. Musk had alerted employees that the work would resume.

Mr. Musk has likened some of the measures authorities have put in place to deal with the coronavirus pandemic to facism. (www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-posts-third-consecutive-quarterly-profit-despite-coronavirus-11588193515)

Mr. Musk in March pushed to keep open Tesla's lone U.S. factory, near San Francisco, when government officials ordered it closed. (www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musks-defiance-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-11584733458). The company finally stopped production on March 23.

Write to Tim Higgins at tim.higgins@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 08, 2020 20:05 ET (00:05 GMT)

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