Elon Musk Calls for Carbon Tax

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has called for a new carbon tax in a recent social media post, just days after announcing that Tesla would no longer be accepting Bitcoin as payment due to environmental concerns.

Breitbart News recently reported that Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated in a tweet that the company has “suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin,” out of worries related to the “rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining.”

The price of Bitcoin dropped by around five percent following Musk’s announcement. In a February SEC filing, Tesla revealed that it purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin and may invest in other cryptocurrencies in the future.

Musk’s discussion of cryptocurrencies has boosted the value of multiple coins, including Bitcoin and Dogecoin. Musk’s tweet reads: “Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin. We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel. Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment. Tesla will not be selling any Bitcoin and we intend to use it for transactions as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy. We are also looking at other cryptocurrencies that use <1% of Bitcoin’s energy/transaction.”

Now, Musk is calling for a “carbon tax,” stating in a tweet that it is “high time” one was implemented:

Musk has previously discussed this idea, stating during his appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast that he had spoken to the Biden administration about implementing a carbon tax. “I talked to the Biden Administration, incoming administration, and they were like ‘well, this seems too politically difficult,’” he said.

“It’s not like we shouldn’t have carbon-generated things, there should be a price on this stuff,” he added, saying SpaceX would also pay a carbon tax as well. “The economy works great. Prices and money are just information. If the price is wrong, the economy doesn’t do the right thing.”

Many were quick to note that Musk and his electric vehicle maker Tesla benefit greatly from carbon and green energy taxes.

Even Jackson Palmer, one of the creators of the Dogecoin cryptocurrency, has been quick to criticize Musk recently:

Musk has already benefited greatly from taxpayer money and government handouts, Breitbart News has outlined this in articles as far back as 2016. In an article titled “Elon Musk Wins By Gaming the Subsidy Game,” Breitbart News wrote:

Tesla, which makes electric cars, struck a deal with Nevada in 2014 to build a battery factory in Reno. The state gave Tesla $1.3 billion in special incentives, including an exemption from paying property taxes for 20 years and $195 million in transferable tax credits Tesla could sell for cash. That’s 15 times the size of any previous package of incentives offered by Nevada and one of the largest giveaways in American history.

Gov. Brian Sandoval says the factory and the 6,000 jobs will “change the trajectory of this state, perhaps forever.” But was he bidding against himself? Where else would Musk have built it? Reno is easily accessible by rail and highway to Fremont, and Nevada has the only active lithium mines in the United States.

As for those tax credits, laws in 10 states require car companies operating in those states to sell a certain number of “zero emissions” vehicles. Since only electric cars qualify as “zero emissions” vehicles, and these companies don’t, in general, make electric cars, they buy these tax credits from Musk. So far, Musk has made $517 million in profit at taxpayer expense.

In addition, Tesla gets a 30 percent federal tax credit, which can be applied to any tax liability the company may incur. Thanks to tax credits and carry-forward losses, the company already hasn’t paid any federal income tax since 2008. In 2014, it paid $2.5 million in corporate taxes — $178,000 to the states, $2.35 million to foreign governments and a big fat zippy to Uncle Sam.

At the time, the Los Angeles Times reported that Musk had raked in $4.3 billion in government money. Musk’s other major firm, SpaceX, also receives billions of dollars in government money. Breitbart News wrote in July of 2018:

In 2014, Musk pushed for the approval of the AB 777 bill which would exempt spaceflight companies from property taxes. The Wall Street Journalwrote at the time: “Upon his request, Democrats who dominate the legislature are moving to exempt SpaceX and other space-travel companies from California’s personal property tax. SpaceX could have sought an appeal of a property tax bill it received last year for engines built at its headquarters, but instead “jumped the queue and petitioned the legislature for a tax reprieve.”

Shortly after this, SpaceX moved their operations from California to Brownsville, Texas. This decision was made as Texas offered the company a $100 million economic incentive package, $15 million for closing the deal and agreeing to move and a commitment from the state to invest $85 million into infrastructure investments to support the company. Texas offered these subsidies to Tesla in an effort to create 300 high-paying jobs in Brownsville which has previously been rated as the poorest city in America.

Aside from this, SpaceX has received $5.5 billion in government contracts from NASA and the U.S. Air Force. This means that government money is funding a large number of SpaceX’s operations. This is not a case of “rich guys” paying for something so that American citizens will not have to. Mark Spiegel, a hedge fund manager for Stanphyl Capital Partners told the LA Times: “Government support is a theme of all three of these companies, and without it none of them would be around.”

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