Tesla found a way to get out of environmental regulations at its Texas gigafactory

• Tesla's gigafactory outside Austin won't have to follow the city's environmental regulations.

• The EV company was granted an exemption thanks to a new state law.

• Elon Musk has said the property will be an "ecological paradise," but Tesla has a history of violating the environment.

Tesla's massive gigafactory outside Austin, Texas will no longer have to follow local environmental regulations, thanks to a recent state law.

Tesla's 2,500-acre property, which includes its 10-million-square-foot electric vehicle gigafactory, is in unincorporated land on the outskirts of Austin.

Despite not being directly in the city, most of that land was still part of Austin's "extraterritorial jurisdiction" (ETJ), which allowed the city to regulate developments outside its limits.

In February, Tesla applied for an exemption from Austin's ETJ, which the city's Planning Department approved in March.

The exemption was first reported by the Austin Business Journal this week.

The exemption was possible thanks to a new state law that went into effect in September and allows landowners to request to be removed from jurisdictions so that they can develop land with fewer regulations.