Tesla Hires In-House Lobbyist

[mpt]

Tesla Motors hires first in-house DC lobbyist - The Hill's Transportation Report

Daniel Witt, a former staffer for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), will be the sole legislative and policy associate for Tesla Motors in Washington, according to a registration form.
The company will lobby on “energy and transportation appropriations, tax reform, vehicle fuel economy and safety standards, domestic manufacturing regulations and incentive,” the company said in Senate records filed Friday.

Good / bad?

 

[Mycroft]

Good for EV enthusiasts and the future of our country. At least there's someone giving a side of the story that is different from the hundreds of oil lobbyists.

 

[dsm363]

I think it is good. You have to pay to play in Washington unfortunately and as they say "if you're not at the table, you may be on the menu". If the oil and energy lobby are the only ones with lobbyists, then they are more likely to get things to go their way.

 

[AnOutsider]

Agreed. Though it does suck to stoop to those levels

 

[mpt]

...it does suck to stoop to those levels

My thoughts as well, I guess that it's a reality we face. We have to get dirty to clean the place up.

 

[Mycroft]

If it helps, replace the label "lobbyist" with "advocate". :smile:

 

[dsm363]

My thoughts as well, I guess that it's a reality we face. We have to get dirty to clean the place up.

Who wants to start a Tesla Super PAC?:smile:

 

[Robert.Boston]

Measuring Rates of Return for Lobbying

The lobbying industry has experienced exponential growth within the past decade. The general public, the media, and special interest groups perceive lobbying to be a powerful mechanism affecting public policy. However, academic research finds inconclusive results when quantifying the rate of return on political lobbying expenditures. In this paper we use audited corporate tax disclosures relating to a tax holiday on repatriated earnings created by the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 to examine the return on lobbying. We find firms lobbying for this provision have a return in excess of $220 for every $1 spent on lobbying, or 22,000%. Repatriating firms are more profitable overall, but surprisingly, profitability is not a predictor of repatriation amount. Rather, industry and firm size are most predictive of repatriation. Cash on hand, a proxy for ability to repatriate, is not associated with the repatriation decision or the repatriation amount. This paper provides compelling evidence that lobbying expenditures have a positive and significant return on investment.

Thar's gold in them there hills! (Capitol Hill, that is)

 

[widodh]

Although this could greatly benefit Tesla and the adoption of EV's, I feel kind of sad that this is necessary.

Indeed, I'm a European, so I have a different view on this.

I've been following the elections the last few days and one thing that I saw was that the repulicans want to get rid of the "environment laws/inspections". They say it slows down the economic growth. Say what!? I thought the world was going in the right way, that we were not putting economic growth above everything anymore?

I like Obama and I really do hope that he gets re-elected. In my opinion he has a long-term view where a lot of politicians in the US seem to have a short-term view which they think helps in buying voters. I also get the feeling that they want to do 4 years, go into the books as "The good president", but don't really want to change anything at all.

The new healthcare program the US got was a great step in the right direction! But please continue in this direction and don't give up now!

But to get back to the topic: I hope that Obama gets re-elected, since I think this Lobbyist would be of much greater value when the democrats are running the US and making it a better and cleaner country.

 

[Citizen-T]

Elon has had a tough time in Washington fighting the Lockheed/Boeing lobbyist army on behalf of SpaceX. I'm sure he is trying to get out ahead this time with Tesla.

I think this is just lessons learned and being applied. That's what we (shareholders) pay him for.

 

[ckessel]

Lobbying isn't inherently a bad thing. Its actually an inherently positive thing. Representatives in congress simply can't know the details required for all of the industries and related regulations, so, in theory, companies with an interest can educate them.

Now, in practice...it's a horror.

 

[ggr]

Lobbying isn't inherently a bad thing. Its actually an inherently positive thing. Representatives in congress simply can't know the details required for all of the industries and related regulations, so, in theory, companies with an interest can educate them.

Now, in practice...it's a horror.

"In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." -- Yogi Berra.

 

[dmckinstry]

I like Obama and I really do hope that he gets re-elected. In my opinion he has a long-term view where a lot of politicians in the US seem to have a short-term view which they think helps in buying voters. I also get the feeling that they want to do 4 years, go into the books as "The good president", but don't really want to change anything at all.

Unfortunately re-electing Obama won't do any good, unless we can get rid of all those in the House and Senate whose only goal for the country was to block any legislation that had any chance of helping Obama getting re-elected. It didn't matter if they believed in the legislation or not. At the very beginning they admitted their only goal was to make him a one-term president.

 

[tdelta1000]

Good. The addition will allow Tesla to expand the mindset of EVs across the board. Also, it could expand the Ev incentive program.

 

[WhiteKnight]

Measuring Rates of Return for Lobbying

Thar's gold in them there hills! (Capitol Hill, that is)

I'm not surprised that politicians are whores. I guess I am surprised that they are such cheap whores. $1 Million in SUPER PAC money gets you a $220 Million government contract or tax break, etc.

Wall Street donates a couple hundred million per year and they get a multi-trillion bailout! Wall Street knows a great investment when they see it!!

 

[rolosrevenge]

I'm not surprised that politicians are whores. I guess I am surprised that they are such cheap whores.

Agreed.

 

[bonnie]

Good thing. Lobbyists ARE advocates. They make sure their clients are heard. A good lobbyist puts you in front of the right congressional committee, they make sure if standards are being reviewed that you have a voice, they speak on your behalf.

There are so many bad lobbyists, that it's hard to believe there are good ones. But there are.