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—as well as 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.”
