Free Republic

Even before Joe Biden was inaugurated as president, he and his team were calling for an end to the Keystone Pipeline. The fourth leg of the energy project, Keystone XL, has been delayed, then resumed, and now delayed again by three presidents since 2015.It attracted opposition from environmentalists, becoming a symbol of the battle over climate change and fossil fuels. At least that’s the story we’ve been hearing from mainstream media, environmental groups, and the Biden administration. But Donald Trump Jr. has a different, more lucid take on what’s been happening.Also worth noting it doesn’t end oil transportation it just...

In times of social crises in America, big tech billionaires are often amongst the first to speak up—though how they do so varies. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, unlike many of his peers, didn’t directly speak about the riot that erupted in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday afternoon. But the second-richest man in the world did make it clear that he was watching the news and indeed had a strong opinion about the surreal events that transpired at the U.S. Capitol. Late Wednesday night, after police had cleared protestors from the Capital ground to allow Congress to resume vote counting...

Tesla's momentum and back-to-back record highs have divided some of the world's most famous investors. Billionaire venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya praised the stock's gains in a Thursday appearance on CNBC, telling investors the stock could be worth three times its already lofty valuation. "Don't sell a share," he added. Hedge fund manager Michael Burry - whose bet against the housing market was depicted in the novel and 2015 film "The Big Short" - aired his contrasting opinion Thursday night. The investor tweeted that, like his famous 2008 gambit, his short position in Tesla stands to print huge gains. "Well, my...

Police are investigating the fatal conflagration of a Tesla Model X that killed its owner and injured two others in an underground parking garage in Seoul. The Model X crashed into the wall of the parking garage of an apartment complex in Yongsan District, central Seoul, then caught fire, on Wednesday. This led to the burning death of the car's owner, who was in the passenger seat. The driver, who escaped with injuries, claimed “the car suddenly got out of control," raising the possibility of a sudden unintended acceleration as the cause of the accident, according to police. It is...

Tesla is giving its owners another way to express their individuality from behind the wheel of their vehicles. As if they needed it. The EV maker released its Holiday Update, Firmware 2020.48.25 on Christmas Day, adding a few little gifts for recently built Teslas, including the ability to make the car fart or bleat like a goat at the outside world on command. Through the new Boombox feature, users can now change their horn noise to a bunch of stock sounds including goat, applause, La Cucaracha, holiday music, coconuts and fart, each projected outward from an external speaker near the...

What could the consequences be if the love affair between China and Tesla begins to fade? That is a question U.S. investors may have to start asking themselves.Weeks ago, we wrote about how China was forcing a recall of Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles, indicating the first "bump in the road" between the company and the Chinese state. Then, on Christmas, Chinese company Pingwest released what can only be called a brutal expose about quality control and working conditions at Tesla's Shanghai factory.The article was titled "Giga-Sweatshop Meets Corporate Overlords: an Exclusive Look Into How Tesla China Runs...

Toyota makes a lot of cars, so many that it’s the world’s largest or second-largest auto manufacturer every year. ... So Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda’s comments at the company’s year-end press conference deserve notice and no little amount of respect. He knows more about cars and their economic ecosystem than just about anyone else on the planet. ... “The more EVs we build, the worse carbon dioxide gets… When politicians are out there saying, ‘Let’s get rid of all cars using gasoline,’ do they understand this?” ... failure to count the cost of what politicians are proposing. More EVs will...

Call up Lord Helmet and Colonel Sanders, because Tesla's gone Plaid. Not one to go down without a fight, the new 2022 Tesla Model S Plaid aims to take on the 2021 Lucid Air Dream Edition and its 1,080 hp electric powertrain. With more than 1,100 horses produced from three electric motors (two at one axle and one more at the other), Tesla promises the most powerful iteration of its flagship sedan will hit 60 mph in less than two seconds and top out at 200 mph. The Air Dream Edition, meanwhile, sprints to 60 mph in less than 2.5...

In an Instagram post, the rapper said he’d be gifting the luxury electric vehicle to one lucky voter 2 Chainz is working hard to get Atlanta residents to vote in the Georgia Senate run-off. The rapper is collaborating with HeadCount and Good to Vote and together, they are giving away a free Model 3 Tesla to those who request a mail-in-ballot or pledge to vote. Starting today until Tuesday, Jan. 5, folks who visit Headcount and request a mail-in ballot or pledge to vote will automatically be entered to win the luxury vehicle, per a press release obtained by theGrio.

Key Points The Mustang Mach-E is arriving at Ford dealerships as its first new all-electric vehicle under an $11 billion investment plan in electrification through 2022. The importance of the Mach-E for Ford can’t be understated as it needs to convince Wall Street that Ford’s EV plans are headed in the right direction. The Mustang Mach-E is aimed squarely at the Tesla Model Y but engineers also took inspiration from the iPhone and Netflix. ========================================================================== The Mustang Mach-E is Ford’s first new all-electric vehicle under an $11 billion investment plan in electrified vehicles through 2022. Michael Wayland / CNBC =====================================================================...

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said Tuesday he has personally relocated to Texas, citing repeated complaints with California’s regulations over technology companies as well as what he called innovation complacency throughout Silicon Valley. “If a team has been winning for too long, they do tend to get a little complacent, a little entitled, and then they don’t win the championship anymore. California has been winning for too long,” Musk said at The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council summit Tuesday during an interview with Editor-in-Chief Matt Murray. When asked if he had moved from California, Musk first emphasized the presence...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk put his California houses on the market this year while he was sparring with state lawmakers over Covid-19 restrictions. He’s simultaneously been expanding operations in Texas and cozying up to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. Now, several of his close friends and associates say that Musk has told them he’s planning to move to the Lone Star State. The people with knowledge of his plans asked not to be named because their conversations were private. Musk, the world’s second-wealthiest person behind Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, is in Texas frequently already. He spends most of his time between Austin,...

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Tuesday that electricity consumption will double if the world’s car fleets are electrified, increasing the need to expand nuclear, solar, geothermal and wind energy generating sources. Increasing the availability of sustainable energy is a major challenge as cars move from combustion engines to battery-driven electric motors, a shift which will take two decades, Musk said in a talk hosted by Berlin-based publisher Axel Springer. There’s no unicorn energy source or free lunch. Currently, electric cars are primarily powered by coal, natural gas, and nuclear. Those are the sources we use to generate electricity,...

An Oregon man crashed a Tesla while going about 100 mph, destroying the vehicle, a power pole and starting a fire when some of the hundreds of batteries from the vehicle broke windows and landed in residences, police said. Dylan Milota was driving a 2019 Tesla S Tuesday night when he lost control, left the road and traveled more than 300 feet before stopping, according to Corvallis Police Lt. Ryan Eaton.The car sheared off a power pole at the base, knocked down two trees and a telephone junction box, police said. Batteries tossed from the Tesla in the collision landed...

Tesla will be added to the S&P 500 index on Dec. 21. Based on its market value Monday, the electric car maker would be one of the top 10 companies in the benchmark index upon entry. S&P Dow Jones Indices made the announcement after the closing bell. Tesla shares jumped nearly 14% in after-hours trading. Tesla became eligible to join the S&P 500 after posting its fourth consecutive profit in the second quarter of this year. However, it was not selected for inclusion in the index in September by the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. Tesla shares have...

No excerpt from Bloomberg allowed, story here.

This is the first interview I've seen of someone who was selected by Starlink as a beta tester... This particular person is in the IT field so he's knowledgeable about many of the issues that people are interested in. The user is streaming the video call via Starlink during the interview, the owner of the YouTube channel is running speed testing software during the entire interview, there was a few second video drop during the interview but the audio remained consistent... I think it's pretty cool, I would love to be one of the beta testers...

On Monday, Starlink the space based internet service from SpaceX an Elon Musk company began to notify people via email that they've been selected for public Beta Testing... The service will cost $99/month with speeds of 50 to 150 Mbs....with a latency of 20-40ms..... There is a additional $499 charge for the equipment that includes the self-aligning dish and in home router....along with a mounting tripod... An additional $99 is available for roof mounted dishes. Users were also told to expect increases in speed and lower latency as more satellites get deployed... You need a clear view of the Norther...

From my friend Phil. This is a true, sad story of the depression that can haunt a man. Brad lived in California and was a lifelong environmentalist. He was sick of the world; of Covid 19, Brexit, Russian belligerence, global warming, racial tensions, and the rest of the disturbing stories that occupy media headlines. Brad drove his car into his garage and then sealed every doorway and window as best he could. He got back into his car and wound down all the windows, selected his favorite radio station and started the car. Two days later, a worried neighbor peered...

The National Transportation Safety Board says the U.S. is woefully unprepared to deal with EV fires, which require different strategies than gasoline vehicle fires. 31 percent of fire departments don't train for EV fires, and half say they don't have special protocols in place to deal with EVs after a crash, the agency's report found. Note the caveats, though. There are more than 29,000 fire departments in the U.S. This survey only asked for information from 32 of them. If you have been reading Car and Driver for a while, there's a decent chance you remember the news when a...