Tesla is being sued by the nonprofit Environmental Democracy Project over “ongoing failure to comply with the Clean Air Act” at the electric vehicle company’s assembly plant in Fremont, California.

In the suit, filed in a federal court in San Francisco on Monday, the environmental group claimed Tesla has violated the particular law “hundreds of times since January 2021, emitting harmful pollution into the neighborhoods surrounding the Factory.”

While Tesla has long touted the climate benefits of driving EVs, its manufacturing practices have been decried by environmentalists for years. Tesla landed at 89 on the 2023 Toxic 100 Air Polluters list, an annual study by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The Environmental Protection Agency fined Tesla $275,000 in 2022, claiming the company had failed to measure, track and maintain records about its own emissions or to minimize air pollutants from painting operations at the facility.

Separately, Tesla was sued by 25 counties in California for its handling of hazardous waste materials at facilities throughout the state earlier this year, and promptly settled with those counties. And in Germany, environmentalists have been protesting Tesla’s clearing of forests to build a factory outside of Berlin, as well as the company’s water consumption.

The latest lawsuit in California described Tesla’s environmental violations as “ongoing” and said that residents and employees in the surrounding area have been exposed to “excess amounts of air pollution, including nitrogen oxides, arsenic, cadmium, and other harmful chemicals.”

Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District, an environmental regulator, recently accused Tesla of allowing “unabated emissions” in Fremont that should have been prevented. The agency said Tesla has received 112 violation notices since 2019, and is now seeking an abatement order that would force the company to implement changes to its factory operations.

“The violations are frequent, recurring, and can negatively affect public health and the environment,” the regulator said in a statement earlier this month.

Air pollution from the assembly plant is the result of equipment that frequently breaks down, allowing emissions to vent directly into the air without proper filtration, regulators have said. Additionally, Tesla employees or contractors have allegedly shut off air pollution controls in the factory, particularly when the company was having trouble with other paint shop equipment.

The paint shop is where unpainted vehicle bodies are primed, painted and coated before final assembly. Tesla’s has a history of repeated fires, CNBC previously reported.

In Tesla’s recent quarterly report, the company maintained that its mission is to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”

However, in spearheading a massive reorganization at Tesla of late, CEO Elon Musk has been promoting its research and development efforts on artificial intelligence and self-driving software, robotaxis and humanoid robots, rather than electric cars and solar energy products.

Musk told investors on the company’s first-quarter earnings call to think of Tesla and its value “almost entirely in terms of solving autonomy.” He recently called climate activists “communists,” sharing derisive memes targeting them on X.

WATCH: How Tesla may have just killed its most important product — Superchargers

Reddit shares popped 7% on Tuesday, climbing for a second straight day after retail traders kicked off a buying frenzy of so-called meme stocks.

The stock closed at $62.34, Reddit’s second-highest close since its IPO in March. The rally began Monday when “Roaring Kitty,” aka Keith Gill, the man who inspired meme stock mania in 2021, resurfaced online, sending shares of GameStop and AMC soaring.

Gill shared a picture on X that showed a video gamer sitting forward on a chair. The image is often used by gamers to signal they’re taking the task seriously. As of Tuesday’s close, the post has been viewed more than 25 million times, according to X.

Reddit played a central role in the meme stock boom three years ago, largely due to the forum WallStreetBets, where traders gather to share tips and, in some cases, band together to drive a stock up or down. GameStop mentions ballooned on WallStreetBets on Monday after Gill’s post.

The image and a series of other cryptic posts were enough to lift GameStop and AMC by more than 100% in the past two trading sessions. Other stocks that have been bunched in with the meme group rose, including BlackBerry, Koss and SunPower.

“It looks like retail investors are becoming more bullish again and willing to take on more risk,” Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Finalto, said in a note. “There is no fundamental reason for the move as such — GME’s last earnings report was abysmal.”

Citizens JMP equity research analyst Andrew Boone told CNBC on Monday that he didn’t see any fundamental reason for Reddit’s rally. Still, he said an increase in user activity would help boost the company’s advertising business.

“At the end of the day, more users means more impressions, which means there are more ads for them to sell,” Boone said.

Reddit, founded 19 years ago, debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on March 21 at $34 a share and ran up as high as $65.11, on March 26. The stock then started selling off, falling as low as $39.17 in April, before getting a boost from Reddit’s better-than-expected earnings report earlier this month.

WATCH: Reddit shares jump on earnings

Bitcoin isn’t running alongside meme stocks as it did three years ago, although this week’s stock market action might indicate a big crypto rally is on its way.

GameStop and fellow meme stock AMC Entertainment are each up more than 160% over the past two days. Meanwhile, bitcoin is little changed, down just 0.1% in the same period, according Coin Metrics. In 2021, by contrast, GameStop and AMC rallied 821% and 373%, respectively, from January through April. Bitcoin’s gains in that time, though more modest, still came to 96%.

“This isn’t 2021 when the world was locked down and awash with liquidity,” said Antoni Trenchev, cofounder of crypto exchange Nexo. “It’s worth remembering GameStop mania peaked in January 2021, well before bitcoin’s more than $60,000 highs in April and November that year. If you want to read into events of the past 24 hours you could suggest GameStop may be acting as a leading indicator ahead of the next leg of bitcoin’s post-halving run.”

“Today’s stronger than estimated U.S. producer price data is a reminder that the macro[economic] and inflationary backdrop isn’t conducive for a bitcoin rally, and it’s likely to stay rangebound after an explosive opening to 2024,” he added.

To be sure, there’s a world of cryptocurrencies beyond bitcoin that includes meme coins. Still, they haven’t joined the party in the same way. Dogecoin and Shiba Inu coins have risen about 3% each in the past two days, according to Coin Metrics.

Bitcoin is widely considered in a class of its own within the crypto world, driven by macro factors when there aren’t specific catalysts to consider, such as the launch of U.S. bitcoin exchange-trade funds or the Bitcoin halving that takes place every four years.

Noelle Acheson, economist and author of the “Crypto is Macro Now” newsletter, added that the meme stock run was “more of a revving of engines than a full take-off” and that macro issues are still pressuring bitcoin.

“Tomorrow’s inflation data may boost spirits if it comes in better than expected, but uncertainty is high,” she said. 

This year, the U.S. permitted the introduction of the first bitcoin ETFs, pushed largely by BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world. The funds are expected to attract new types of investors, steady flows of new cash, all while reducing volatility. Plus, the 2023 regional banking crisis in the U.S. that kicked off the current bitcoin cycle alterted many people to cryptocurrency’s potential as an alternative financial system and hedge against uncertainty.

“Bitcoin is no longer seen as a pure speculation asset,” Acheson said. “Its store of value narrative is more deeply entrenched, its holder base is much broader and it has become to some extent institutionalized.”

Sylvia Jablonski, CEO and chief investment officer at Defiance ETFs, added that although bitcoin was “lumped into the meme stock category” in 2021, the market is starting to show signs of being taken more seriously now.

“There has been a shift towards credibility in longevity of holding bitcoin,” she said. “Bitcoin became more commercial in its ETF wrapper, and both retail and institutional investors tend to hold both bitcoin and ether, versus day trade it like meme stocks.”

With bitcoin rallying so far in the first quarter of the year, briefly approaching $73,000, it’s more recently been pulling back in what many investors describe as a healthy move. With few catalysts and challenged by macroeconomic headwinds, these investors also warn that the lull in bitcoin’s price could last several more months, and maybe pull prices lower still.

“These periods of consolidation can last a long time and are intensely dull,” Trenchev said. “The bitcoin narrative tap has run dry … and I wouldn’t expect the revival of the meme-stock frenzy to be a catalyst for bitcoin’s next move.”