Elon Musk could be a huge ally to the Biden administration. After all, they have the same overall goals — or at least I thought they did. I thought Biden cared about getting as many EVs on the road by 2030 as possible. However, the commitment doesn’t seem to be strong enough, or is clouded by other issues that should not be getting in the way of this priority.
Under Biden’s guidance, the U.S. rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement and is pushing for stronger commitments globally. Unlike the previous administration, Biden is for protecting this planet and for America doing its part at mitigating climate change. He has also been focused on raising fuel economy standards again.
Yet his administration continues to single out Elon Musk by excluding him. He’s done it with Tesla on behalf of the UAW, which wants Tesla to unionize. The White House confirmed this last month after excluding Tesla from its press event with American automakers, even though one of those automakers isn’t even headquartered in the United States and has been convicted of making illegal payments to UAW officers. Tesla’s employees don’t want to unionize. Why should Tesla or Elon be punished or shamed for that?
In the latest example of exclusion, President Biden didn’t seem to notice that SpaceX held its Inspiration4 mission where, for the first time in history, four civilians orbited the Earth for three days. Each of the civilians were American citizens. This is something to be extremely proud of as a nation, and previous presidents have congratulated Elon Musk and SpaceX for other achievements. Yet President Biden remained silent.
I Voted For Biden And I Still Think He’s Much Better Than Trump, But …
I think he’s also flawed, as is every single human on this planet. Just as Elon has his flaws, you have yours, and I have mine, so does our president, and this is where we come together to hold him accountable. I’m not talking about his personal attitude toward Elon Musk, but as the president of a nation, one would think that the leader would be proud of his country’s latest big, historic achievement.
His administration’s overall stance toward Elon Musk is bleeding onto the administration’s goals for clean energy, EVs, and preventing climate change. The Biden administration has a huge opportunity to work with Tesla and Elon Musk as an ally for its goals in this respect. And it would gain a lot of fans if it did so! This is a true win-win opportunity.
Instead, it has chosen the UAW and political dealings over accomplishing its own goals. By joking recently “He’s sleeping” in response to a person asking why Biden hasn’t congratulated the first 4 “citizen astronauts” and SpaceX, Elon Musk was simply highlighting the obvious here. The administration’s dislike for him as a person is making Biden miss out on some great opportunities, and the chance to celebrate what these American companies have done for our nation and world.
Tesla has had many achievements, and so has SpaceX. Both are doing great things for our nation and our planet. During Tesla’s Battery Day event last year, Elon Musk said,
“The three parts of a sustainable energy future are sustainable energy generation, storage, and electric vehicles. So we intend to play a significant role in all three.”
He then explained further:
“To accelerate the transition to sustainable energy, we must produce more EVs that need to be affordable and a lot more energy storage, while building factories faster and with far less investment.
“Goal #1 is terawatt-hour scale battery production. So tera is the new giga. And a terawatt is a thousand times more than a gigawatt. So, we used to talk in terms of gigawatts; in the future, we’ll be talking in terms of terawatt-hours. So, this is what’s needed in order to transition the world to sustainability.”
President Biden has the opportunity here to work with a company that is focused on the same things his administration wants for our nation. He just needs to stop catering to the UAW, other campaign donors, or misguided advisors and put our goals first and politricks last. It’s the best thing for everyone.
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