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Elon Musk met with two White House officials to discuss ramping up the production of electric vehicles in the United States.
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The Tesla CEO spoke with Biden’s advisers about laws including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
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It comes after Musk criticized Biden for not recognizing Tesla’s contribution to the production of electric vehicles.
Elon Musk met with two White House officials in Washington to discuss how the US could ramp up production of electric vehicles.
The news was first reported by Reuters.
The Tesla CEO on Friday met with President Joe Biden’s senior adviser on clean energy innovation John Podesta and Mitch Landrieu, who oversees infrastructure investment, the White House said at a press conference Friday.
The meeting focused on how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act could boost electric vehicles, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in the briefing.
Jean-Pierre also said, “The outreach and meeting say a lot about how important bipartisan infrastructure legislation is to the president.”
The $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill was signed into law in November 2021. It was designed to fund improvements in transportation systems, clean energy, and electric vehicle infrastructure. An expenditure of $7.5 billion was earmarked for the creation of a network of electric vehicle chargers in the United States.
The meeting between Musk and Biden’s senior advisers comes despite an apparently frosty relationship between the president and the Tesla boss. The pair have traded blows since Biden took office in 2021.
Tesla was barred from an electric vehicle summit at the White House in summer 2021. In response, Musk She said on Twitter that “it seems strange that Tesla was not invited”. Musk bashed Biden for not being included and said in a panel discussion in August: “(They) didn’t mention Tesla once and praised GM and Ford for leading the electric vehicle revolution. part?”
Biden praised GM and Ford in a January 2022 tweets to “build more electric vehicles here at home than ever before.” His failure to acknowledge Tesla’s contribution to electric vehicle production prompted Musk to answer: “Starts with a T. Ends with an ESL A in the middle.”
About 40,000 Tesla fans signed a Change.org petition in February asking Biden to recognize Tesla’s leadership in the electric vehicle industry. They accused the Biden administration of “willfully” ignoring Tesla’s work and said it was an “insult” to Tesla workers.
The insider reached out to Tesla for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Read the original article on Business Insider
