This illustrates a number of issues to I like to single out. 1) Note that it is illegal to manufacture under US environmental legislation. Tesla is something a

This illustrates a number of issues to I like to single out. 1) Note that it is illegal to manufacture under US environmental legislation. Tesla is something a little under half the market for electric vehicles, led the charge and did a lot fo the R&D. The author draws our attention to the reasonable point that the regulators should have shut big chunks of that down if they were doing their job and forced Tesla to spend more time on other matters. 2) It appears one of Elon Musk's competitive advantages is negotiating with government. By bypassing environmental legislation and taking cynical advantage of subsidies, he can get a manufacturing company up and running. This bodes very badly for manufacturing that isn't effectively corrupt. 3) Off topic bonus point. I have a quiet bet with myself that these dynamics are also the reason why China is good at solar panel production and the US is not. There seems to be a hard trade off between environmental and manufacturing excellence. I expect manufacturing excellence actually drives improving long term living standards.