Tesla and the War on Coal

You may have seen pictures of Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, playing amateur daredevil as he tried his hand at wing walking the other day. Yes, he's happy-go-lucky, living high on the hog - his coffers full of government largess.

So dependent upon the government for its survival, Tesla's 2014 annual report stated: "Our growth depends in part on the availability and amount of government subsidies and economic incentives."

That's a pretty bold and honest statement. Let me rephrase that. It's a pretty bold statement, for, to be honest, Musk's company depends almost entirely on the generosity of us ignorant taxpayers, in one form or another.

They don't sell many cars, and the money they do make is through a myriad of tax credits and other government giveaways. It's a great scheme and the model for crony corporatism.

Tesla, by all estimates, is a great car, but the company couldn't survive a year in a real free-market. Yet, they are evidently not content with their current method of fleecing the American public.

Tesla has begun lobbying for even more stringent Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. That's music to Obama and the anti-energy cabal's ears. If you can't sell your cars, convince the government to force us to buy them.

As is, the fuel economy standard Obama has mandated requires an average of 54.5 mpg by 2025 - a mere 10 years from now. By today's standards, that's impossible, considering the smallest Toyota Prius currently gets 53 mpg.

But "Tesla's vice president of development, Diarmuid O'Connell, complained this week that the existing standards are too weak and won't force the auto industry to 'put compelling products on the road.'"

Yet, therein lies another problem the government has created that it will later have to "solve." It's the juxtaposition of government's desire for clean cars and Obama's war on coal.

Last I checked, electric cars need electricity to run. With Obama hell-bent on killing the United States coal industry, how will these electric vehicles recharge?

But that, for this shortsighted administration, is a problem for someone else because what it's really all about is fictitious, man-made global warming. We must rid ourselves of dirty coal and the internal combustion engine. This will save the planet.

The only problem is the rest of the world isn't playing along. Across the globe, coal is making a major comeback.

"Some 1200 coal plants are planned across 59 countries, with about three quarters in China and India, according to the World Resources Institute. Coal use around the world has grown about four times faster than renewables, according to the global energy monitoring publication BP Review of World Energy 2015."

 Even in "green" Europe, coal is still a major source of energy. "German coal, 'will remain a major, and probably the largest fuel source for power generation for another decade and perhaps longer,'" the Financial Times concludes.

So, as the U.S. foolishly and deliberately shuts down our cheapest source of electricity, the rest of the world is riding the coal train, with, as one would expect, China and India taking the lead.

But still, Obama, stuck in his own green fantasy, exclaims, "We must lead so that others will follow."

Follow where? Into the poor house where we are all forced to purchase $100,000 Teslas and then leave them in the driveway as we walk to work, because there's not enough electricity to charge them?

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