A visual guide to the industrial processes you can no longer permit in the state of California — and the grandfathered facilities that still can.
"If I wanted to build a new car factory, I literally couldn't paint the cars."
Every component in your pocket required an industrial process that's nearly impossible to permit in California today.
The main processor requires ultra-clean rooms, toxic gases (arsine, phosphine), and chemical etching. No new fabs have been built in CA in over a decade. Intel, TSMC, and Samsung all build elsewhere.
The aluminum frame is anodized using sulfuric acid baths, generating hazardous waste. Anodizing facilities face extreme permitting hurdles for wastewater and air emissions.
Battery cells require electrode coating with toxic solvents (NMP), electrolyte handling, and formation cycling. This is exactly why Tesla's Gigafactory went to Reno.
Printed circuit boards are etched with ferric chloride or ammonium persulfate. Soldering uses flux chemicals. These wet chemical processes face stringent air quality and wastewater permits.
Camera lenses need vacuum deposition coatings, and image sensors are semiconductor devices. Both require processes identical to chip fabrication.
Gorilla Glass-style displays need ion-exchange chemical baths at 400°C+. The furnaces and chemical handling require extensive permitting.
Wireless antennas and RF components require electroplating with gold, copper, and other metals. Electroplating operations generate heavy metal waste and cyanide compounds.
Building an EV requires metal forging, battery manufacturing, painting, and chip fabrication — all processes that drove Tesla to build in Nevada and Texas.
A modern auto paint shop emits volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during primer, base coat, and clear coat application. The Bay Area AQMD makes permitting a new paint shop nearly impossible. This is THE classic example of what you can't do in CA.
Cell manufacturing uses NMP solvent for electrode coating, handles flammable electrolytes, and requires formation cycling that generates heat and gases. Tesla chose Reno for the Gigafactory specifically because of California's permitting environment.
Tesla's "Giga Press" mega-casting machines melt and inject aluminum at extreme temperatures. Foundry operations generate metal fumes, require massive energy, and face severe air quality restrictions in CA.
Power electronics for EVs use silicon carbide chips that require the same fabrication infrastructure as CPUs — clean rooms, toxic gases, acid etching, and enormous water consumption.
Electric motors need precision-wound copper coils and rare earth permanent magnets. Magnet production involves processing neodymium and other rare earths with hydrochloric acid.
Automotive glass starts as float glass produced in continuous furnaces at 1500°C+, then tempered and laminated with chemical treatments. These furnaces run 24/7 for years.
A modern EV contains miles of copper wiring with PVC insulation (extrusion) and gold or tin-plated connectors (electroplating). Both processes face heavy environmental regulation.
Brake rotors are cast iron, produced in foundries. Brake pads are sintered metallic compounds. Foundry operations are among the most difficult to permit in California.
Tire manufacturing involves sulfur vulcanization of rubber and steel belt production. Chemical emissions from vulcanization face strict regulation.
Arleigh Burke-class
Building a warship requires every banned process at massive scale — and there's exactly one yard on the West Coast that can do it.
Destroyer hulls use HY-80/HY-100 high-yield steel. Rolling this steel and welding it into hull sections produces massive metal fumes, requires pre-heating, and generates tons of welding waste.
The LM2500 gas turbines use nickel superalloy turbine blades grown as single crystals at 2500°F. This is aerospace-grade metallurgy that requires vacuum furnaces and specialized foundries.
The AEGIS SPY-1 radar uses thousands of gallium arsenide transmit/receive modules. GaAs semiconductor fabrication is as complex as silicon chip manufacturing, with additional toxicity concerns.
The Mk 41 Vertical Launch System requires precision-welded steel and aluminum canisters, composite materials for blast protection, and specialized explosive-resistant manufacturing.
The Mk 45 5-inch gun barrel is forged from ordnance-grade steel, chrome-lined internally, and precision-rifled. Barrel forging requires enormous presses and chromium plating baths.
Naval propellers are cast from nickel-aluminum-bronze alloy in specialized foundries. Propulsion shafts are forged from high-strength steel. Both require foundry operations at enormous scale.
Ships need generators, massive copper bus bars, transformers, and switchgear — all manufactured through processes involving copper refining, transformer oil, and heavy metalwork.
Communications equipment requires PCB etching, waveguide machining from aluminum/brass, and connector gold plating. Every antenna and radio aboard is an exercise in banned processes.
The Combat Information Center is packed with ruggedized computers, displays, and networking equipment requiring conformal coating, specialized soldering, and hardened semiconductor devices.
Hull coatings include toxic anti-fouling paint and specialized radar-absorbing materials. Applying these at shipyard scale generates massive emissions.
These facilities still operate because they were established before current regulations. If any of them closed, they could not reopen under the same permits.