As Nevada regulators continue to investigate safety episodes that have occurred in the tunnels Boring Company is digging below Las Vegas, two Nevada legislators have written a letter to Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, demanding a “comprehensive plan” to address concerns of “structural failures” in the state’s oversight of Elon Musk’s tunneling startup.
The letter, which was shown to Fortune, described “significant concerns about record integrity, administrative accountability, and structural failures within Nevada’s workplace safety system,” and said that “these issues remain unresolved and require clear action from the Executive Branch.” The letter was sent to the Governor’s Chief of Staff, Ryan Cherry, on Wednesday morning. Assemblymember Howard Watts and Senator Rochelle Nguyen, two Democrats who lead the state’s Assembly Committee on Growth and Infrastructure, signed and sent the letter.
“Questions surrounding withdrawn citations, altered records, and delays in adjudication have created the perception that Nevada’s enforcement system is not operating independently or transparently,” the letter reads, pointing out that “there still remain a number of unanswered questions and outstanding issues regarding The Boring Company and the health and safety of Nevada workers.”
The latest injury, the one involving the employee who was shocked, “just points to the fact that we need to ensure that our OSHA process is functioning properly—to hold this and other companies accountable, to provide a safe working environment for people in our community,” Assemblymember Watts said in an interview with Fortune. He pointed out that “these tremendous backlogs” are allowing companies to contest citations for over a year and delay addressing the underlying problems.
In that recent interview, Governor Lombardo said that “in the long run,” he believed Boring Company would be “very beneficial” to Las Vegas.
“Do I like them in their tactics and how they do business? No,” he said.
The legislators’ letter demanded that Governor Lombardo’s administration submit a written plan that would “detail concrete actions, responsible officials, and implementation timelines” to start the independent investigation and address safety case backlogs by April 17.
The Governor’s Office did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
