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How Car Dealership Lobbyists Successfully Banned Tesla Motors From Texas

Posted by Soulskill on from the don't-mess-with-texas-unless-you-can-float-some-benjamins dept.

Funksaw writes "In a political op-ed on his blog, long time Slashdot reader and contributor Brian Boyko (the guy who did that animated Windows 8 video) — now a candidate for state representative — explains how lobbyists from car dealerships successfully banned Tesla Motors from selling cars in Texas. From the article: 'Tesla Motors doesn't just present a case study of why a lack of campaign finance reform blocks meaningful reform on the issues that Democrats care about, like climate change and health care. A lack of campaign finance reform blocks reforms on both the Left and the Right. Here's the big elephant in the room I'd like to point out to all the "elephants" in the room: With a Republican-controlled legislature, a Republican executive, and many conservatives in our judiciary, why the hell don't we have free markets in Texas? Isn't it the very core of economic-conservative theory that the invisible hand of the free market determines who gets what resources? Doesn't the free market have the ability to direct resources to where they can most efficiently be used? I'm not saying the conservatives are right in these assumptions; but I am saying that our broken campaign finance system makes a mockery of them.'"

3 of 688 comments (clear)

  1. More by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's what the Tesla site says:
    http://www.teslamotors.com/advocacy_texas

    Here's the Dallas Observer's discussion:
    http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2013/09/tesla_crushed_by_car_dealer_lo.php

    And Auto News:
    http://www.autonews.com/article/20130909/RETAIL07/130909878/how-texas-dealers-slammed-the-door-on-tesla

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  2. lobbying for their own exemption by james_shoemaker · · Score: 5, Informative

    I read the laws tesla is lobbying for on their website, it's a rather specific exemption from the dealership law for basically them:

    "a manufacturer of only all electric-powered or all battery-powered motor vehicles, or a distributor of only all electric-powered or all battery-powered motor vehicles, that (i) owned and operated a new motor vehicle dealership in the United States on or before March 1, 2013, and (ii) has never sold its line make in the United States through an independent franchised new motor vehicle dealership, may own or operate a dealer or dealership, or act in the capacity of a dealer, at any location within the state and may obtain a dealer general distinguishing number under Section 503.029 of the Transportation Code."

          "let's write ourselves an exemption, but slam the door on anyone coming after us"

  3. Re:Free market, LOL! by sjames · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Ds are what most countries would call 'the right'. They are nowhere near Socialism.,/p>