Solar City solar panels
Space X rocket
May 29, 2012 (Ricochet) Elon Musk Shows Us How to Thrive in the Government-Directed Economy ...."Those who know how to navigate an economy driven by the state will succeed. They do so regardless whether the market has determined their product as the best or not—sometimes it has, sometimes it hasn’t. Sometimes the consumer has no real ability, thanks to the aforementioned mix of laws and regulations, to go in another direction. Sometimes the only consumer is the government, meaning the appropriators, bureaucrats, and administrators who dream fondly of working some day for the contractor titans they fuel with other people’s money.".....
Sept 18, 2012 - Elon Musk SpaceX Head Obama Bundler?
April 15, 2012 (National Legal and Policy Center) Taxpayers Subsidize Forbes 'Green' Billionaires' Schemes........Musk, best known as co-founder of the company that became PayPal, is Chairman of SolarCity and CEO of Tesla. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, SolarCity spent $535,000 in 2009 and 2010 to lobby Congress and the Department of Energy on climate legislation, the Recovery Act, “green workforce training and development,” and provisions in various legislation “relevant to solar development.” SolarCity has sought to extend a program, due to expire at the end of 2012, that delivers to manufacturers an upfront cash grant in lieu of a 30 percent Investment Tax Credit (called the Section 1603 grant program). So far, according to DOE reports, SolarCity has received more than $66 million from that program.
The company also won a partial guarantee from DOE of a $344 million loan that will place up to 160,000 rooftop solar installations on military housing across the country..........."
Tesla has even more questionable connections:
Tesla brings political pull, as well. A former Tesla board member, Steve Westly, is an Obama bundler who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the president in 2008 and for his 2012 re-election campaign. His Westly Group was also a financial supporter of Tesla Motors until Tesla went public in 2010, and Westly continues to back the company.
Tesla’s founder and CEO, Elon Musk, is a hearty political contributor who has primarily backed Democrats, including Obama. According to published reports, another Tesla investor is Nick Pritzker, a donor to Obama and a cousin of Penny Pritzker, the national finance chair of Obama’s 2008 campaign.
Does anyone know how many they’ve made so far?
Why is the department of energy lending money to a car company? I understand it is an electric car company... but still. Picking winners and losers (and doing a bad job of it) is NOT the job of the government.
Another Obama Money Pit.
His instincts are consistent if nothing else.
A company called “Tesla” should be developing anti-gravity technology, generators that extract electricity from atmospheric static and the magnetosphere, particle beam weapons for the DOD, and beyond speed of light warp drives. Re-inventing automobile technology that was around in the late 19th Century just doesn’t seem to cut it.
Tesla will make Solyndra look like your kid’s lemonade stand going broke.
“Tesla plans to begin repaying its Energy Department loans in the fourth quarter.”
Right.
And I expect to nab the next Noble prize in physics.
Reader’s Digest version of story:
Tesla Motors, Inc., maker of the world’s most expensive golf carts, lost 10% of its value yesterday when it missed its revenue projections by 50%. Nonetheless, there’s still plenty of money left from the original taxpayer loan from the Department of Energy to make additional contributions to Obama’s re-election campaign. In other news, the sun rose this morning over the Atlantic coast.