Elon and the Government
It’s been awhile, but Elon Musk - CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter - was reportedly asked to meet with US government officials in Washington DC on Friday the 27th.
Two Senior Advisors to President Joe Biden were present - John Podesta and Mitch Landrieu - and the subject seems to have been the government’s push towards electrification of the US transportation industry - and how Musk and the government could help each other.
Not much more has been said about the content of the meeting, but the timing is in line with the Biden administration’s push to move society away from fossil-fuels and towards electricity as an energy source.
Last August, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law - a sweeping act of legislation that is attempting to boost employment over the next few years by investing heavily in Green Energy projects - including Electric Vehicles.
This bill alone represents so much money in potential tax incentives and grants that the whole industry immediately leapt into action so they could be eligible - and Tesla was no exception.
Over the last couple of months, Tesla has slowed their plans in Germany in favour of taking advantage of opportunities in the States. They have ramped up production - and have broken ground on massive expansions at their American factories. They’ve modified their charging stations to include standard CCS adapters. Even Tesla partners like Panasonic are making new facilities in the US to support the coming boom.
But it’s one thing for a company to take advantage of new policy, and another to be called in to potentially help shape that new policy. But given that Tesla is the #1 EV company in the world, it would be difficult for the Biden administration to build a strategy to promote EV use without at least consulting Musk.
And it certainly wouldn’t be the first time Elon’s worked with a US administration. Back in 2017, Musk took a position on two Presidential Advisory councils that were created for then-President Donald Trump.
According to Elon, he joined so that he could have some influence on the Trump administration - and maybe get some real action on Climate Change done. And that’s likely the truth - Elon might be criticised for many things but he’s always been very vocal on his drive to work towards addressing Climate Change. Once Trump pulled America out of the Paris Accords in the summer of 2017, Elon resigned.
And while the Trump Administration was relatively chummy with Musk and his companies - the Biden Administration is an entirely different situation.
From the start, Musk and Biden haven’t seen eye-to-eye - despite both men being very pro-EV. Part of it is definitely that they’re on opposite sides of the political fence, but the Biden administration certainly isn’t too progressive to work against business interests - the real issue between the two seems to be the United Auto Workers union - a major Biden donor.
Musk has been very vocally critical of the giant union and its effects on the industry. Business leaders in general are usually opposed to labour organisation, but with the UAW making a more or less constant effort to push into the Tesla space, it’s gotten to be a little personal for Musk.
But regardless of the friction between the billionaire and President Biden, Musk’s companies rely heavily on government subsidies - and have always done so.
Even in the early days, Musk's companies enjoyed massive government support and contracts to the tune of billions of dollars. But more recently, SpaceX received a $653 million contract with the US Air Force in 2020 - the same year Tesla received aid from the $600 billion Pandemic relief fund.
This is generally how large companies operate, so it’s not surprising that Elon’s companies have - and continue - to receive support regardless of his relationship with the current administration. And it’s the fact that companies like Tesla and SpaceX receive this funding that makes the news of Musk meeting government officials make sense.
The US government has spent a WILD amount of money to help Musk build his companies - companies that are not just functional, but dominating their industries. So, aside from Tesla’s outsized influence in the EV space - or probably because of that - having Musk weigh in on policies that would help make the average citizen swap to an electric car is a no-brainer.
It does look like the Biden administration is willing to work with Tesla more and more as they make changes like redesigning their charging stations. Honestly, the two organisations collaborating is a very good thing if it keeps producing results like this.
There’s a lot of time left in 2023, and we’ll likely hear about more meetings in Washington involving Musk and other industry experts. If Biden wants to make this push work, he’s doing the smart thing by including Tesla in the planning.