In one of the more ironic stories in recent months, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced a settlement it just made with California-based Tesla over violations of the Clean Air Act. You read that right. The EV automaker, per an official EPA press release, violated the fed's national compliance initiative called Creating Cleaner Air for Communities by Reducing Excess Emissions of Harmful Pollutants. These pollutants could lead to cancer and other dangerous health issues.

As part of the settlement, Tesla has agreed to pay $275,000, which is peanuts for a company valued at around $1 trillion. More specifically, Tesla violated a certain section of Clean Air Act regulations called Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Surface Coating of Automobiles and Light-Duty Trucks.

From October 2016 until September 2019 at its Fremont, California plant, home of the Model S and Model 3, Tesla failed to implement a work practice plan to minimize hazardous air pollutants emissions from the storage and mixing of materials used in vehicle coating operations. In addition, the carmaker failed to properly perform the required monthly emissions calculations to ensure those coating operations complied with federal law. Tesla also did not collect and keep required records associated with the calculation of those air pollutants emission rates.

Aside from paying the minuscule fine, Tesla has fixed the violations and is now in EPA compliance. For an automaker that champions the EV and zero emissions cause, it's interesting to see some of its production methods exposed in not the best way.

What's equally troubling is how Tesla purposely ignored what appears to be very basic environmental guidelines. Automakers are often investigated by the EPA for similar offenses, but Elon Musk often brags about how Tesla is changing the world for the better. He's not entirely wrong but it's important to have a production process that's as clean as possible.

Of course, Tesla still remains under investigation by two completely separate federal agencies, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), over Musk's Twitter statements about selling off stock and Autopilot safety, respectively.