Yes, things continue to be weird in the orbit of Elon Musk. Apparently, groups of people in cities and states across the US that are very upset about several — or numerous — horrible things Elon Musk and his crew did in politics are now working to advocate for changes that will hurt Tesla, and thus Elon Musk, on a more local level. There are efforts to remove Tesla’s right to sell directly to customers, efforts to block Tesla’s robotaxi plans, and efforts to deport people with the first name Elon — just kidding on that last one.
Interestingly, though, there’s concern that lobbyists hired in these efforts to make life harder for Tesla come from companies that have also been hired by Elon Musk.
“The wave of anti-Tesla legislation is, I think, one of the more effective responses to [what] Elon Musk did at DOGE,” said James Browning, executive director of watchdog group F Minus (a group focused on exposing conflicts of interest in lobbying). “He’s obviously desperate to detoxify Tesla and desperate to get back to business as usual. But there’s a perverse irony here, which is that some progressive cities that have been really hurt by DOGE — and where you saw huge No Kings protests last weekend — are spending their own tax dollars on the same lobbying firms [as Musk]. And that’s really dangerous and self destructive.”
Now, my initial thought was: come on, big companies can be hired by and professionally do their job for opposing clients. However, I then thought: well, could executives at these companies be wary of pissing off a gigantic client of theirs with more money than anyone can fathom? I also know well — very, very well — that Elon Musk is super spiteful and expects deference and loyalty to him as if he is king of the universe. Would he dump a company that was also representing his opponents? You betcha!
So, yes, there could definitely be conflicts of interest in these cases.
On the flip side, “Apart from holding Musk accountable for the harm he caused during his days at DOGE, Browning argues that pressuring lobbyists to drop his businesses as a client might make those firms better advocates for the local governments and transit agencies that also employ them — and ultimately, a more powerful force multiplier for democracy,” Streetsblog writes. “And it may already be happening. Browning says congressional lobbying firm Pioneer Public Affairs dropped Tesla after an outcry, allowing them more time to focus on nonprofit clients like Public Citizen and the League of Conservation Voters — and other lobbying firms could easily follow suit.”
I don’t expect any notable cases against Tesla are going to get far — banning direct sales to customers is so backwards, and even if some limitations are put in place for robotaxi deployment, the big issue is really whether Tesla’s robotaxi service can operate well and safely or not. But who knows? Efforts on the local/state issue could be much more effective than broader national ones. In any case, though, it is weird for Tesla and its opponents to be represented by the same lobbying firms, so I would think that should change as more people look into it.
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