Several city, state and federal spokespeople concur that Tesla CEO has not received permission to build high-speed tunnel from NYC to Washington DC

Elon Musk does not have government approval to build a Hyperloop tunnel from New York City to Washington DC.

The Tesla executive took to Twitter this morning to tantalize his legion of fans and the tech press with the “news” that he had “just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop. NY-DC in 29 mins … City center to city center in each case, with up to a dozen or more entry/exit elevators in each city.”

Lest any billionaires need to brush up on civics 101: the US system of government does not operate on “verbal government approvals”.

Musk walked back his claim about 90 minutes later, tweeting: “Still a lot of work needed to receive formal approval, but am optimistic that will occur rapidly”.

A lot of work is needed to receive formal approval, indeed.

Musk was received with typical credulity by the tech press, and considerable consternation by various government agencies. Several spokespeople who answered the phones at relevant city, state and federal government bodies laughed upon hearing of the claim that an interstate transit project with a significant street-level footprint in four of the east coast’s largest cities could be approved verbally.

“Who gave him permission to do that?” asked a spokesman with the Maryland department of transportation.

“Elon Musk has had no contact with Philadelphia officials on this matter,” said Mike Dunn, the city spokesman. “We do not know what he means when he says he received ‘verbal government approval’. There are numerous hurdles for this unproven ‘hyperloop’ technology before it can become reality.”

A spokesperson for the state of Pennsylvania confirmed that neither the governor nor the state’s department of transportation had been contacted by Musk or his company.

Ben Sarle, a spokesman for the New York City mayor’s office, said in an email: “Nobody in City Hall, or any of our city agencies, has heard from Mr Musk or any representatives of his company.”

“The New York state department of transportation did not give verbal approval for a hyperloop,” said spokeswoman Jennifer Post.

Anthony McCarthy, the spokesman for the Baltimore mayor, Catherine Pugh, said: “Mr Musk’s announcement on Twitter was the first that the city heard of the Hyperloop project. ” However, Pugh said in a statement that she was “excited” to hear about the idea, which could “create new opportunities for Baltimore and transform the way we link to neighboring cities” – if it becomes a reality.

Similarly, LaToya Foster, the spokeswoman for Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser, said: “This is the first we heard of it . We can’t wait to hear more.”

Spokespeople for other state and federal regulators said they were getting numerous calls about Musk’s claims but did not yet have any information to share.

“I really have no idea,” said Ben Fritsch, spokesman for Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents Washington DC and sits on the House transportation committee.

What Musk does seem to have had are informal discussions with White House officials about his proposal for an east coast Hyperloop, a system of underground vacuum tubes through which trains or pods could be shot at high speeds.

A White House spokesperson confirmed that officials had had “promising conversations” with Musk and executives from the Boring Company, adding that the White House is “committed to transformative infrastructure projects, and believe our greatest solutions have often come from the ingenuity and drive of the private sector”.

Which is great for everyone who dreams of futuristic transportation options along the eastern seaboard. But the difference between a billionaire businessman’s “promising conversations” with a country’s executive branch and “formal approval” is the difference between an oligarchy and a representative democracy.

Sam Teller, a spokesman for the Boring Company, said the company had had “a number of promising conversations with local, state and federal government officials”, though he declined to comment on which localities were included, so it is unclear whether any of them were even on the New York to DC route.

Teller also said the company had “received verbal support from key government decision makers for tunneling plans” and “expect to secure the formal approvals necessary to break ground later this year”.

Infrastructure projects in the US generally require approval by elected officials and regulatory bodies, significant planning and environmental review, and opportunities for public engagement and comment. Musk did not respond to questions about whether he planned to purchase the land on the route he’s proposing or seek easements – another lengthy and bureaucratic process.

“There is just a gigantic environment of people that this project would be required to work with,” said Madeline Brozen, associate director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, noting that the Hyperloop would be considered a “mega project” that would require collaboration with cities, states, the federal government, railroad authorities and other agencies.

“There is no such thing as a verbal environmental approval,” she added. “The government really wants to be very careful about how they permit and allow projects, and a verbal agreement is not how that process works.”

It’s also important to note that the concept of a Hyperloop remains largely theoretical. While two companies have worked on developing the technology, they have yet to release working models to the public.

This is not the first time that Musk has made dubious claims about his ability to dig tunnels wherever he wants on Twitter. In January, he announced his intention to start digging a tunnel to ease traffic in Los Angeles within “a month or so”. In reality, he was planning to drill a tunnel near his SpaceX office in the city of Hawthorne, near the Los Angeles airport, and had not yet received any permits or approvals from city, county or state agencies.

Musk did not respond to questions about the motivation behind his bombastic claims, but the tweets obviously succeeded in generating significant press coverage for him and his company. His initial statement about “verbal govt approval” has been retweeted more than 34,000 times. The follow-up tweet acknowledging a lack of “formal approval” has been retweeted less than 1,000 times.