It was just days ago that we brought you the latest story of liberal hypocrisy in which a billionaire, who was urging the world to eat less meat for global warming purposes, also happened to be jet-setting around the globe in her private jet, leaving a sizable carbon footprint behind.
The “save the Earth hypocrisy” torch continues its journey today, passing from her hand directly to the left’s favorite poster child for all causes environmental, Elon Musk. The Washington Post reported today that Musk’s corporate jet flew more than 150,000 miles in 2018, equal to six times around the Earth and dwarfing numbers put up by other (consistently profitable) CEOs like Tim Cook and Jeff Bezos.
That’s bad, but this is worse: when the Washington Post starts calling out your green energy hypocrisy, you can be assured that there’s a problem.
Not only that, Tesla shareholders – the ones with an ideological crusade to save the Earth – were said to “largely pay” for Musk’s travel. Elon logged more than 250 flights for work, projects and vacations across Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East during 2018, the same year Tesla was losing up to $100 million a week at one point. That equates to nearly one flight per day.
After all of the hemming and hawing about Musk’s breakneck schedule and 120 hour work weeks, it was a clear reminder that the billionaire still has the luxury to travel at any time to any place in the world. In addition to traveling for work, some of the flights were getaways for Elon or his family.
This story breaks at a time when Tesla is almost assuredly going to face questions about its spending after revealing earnings this week and eventually filing its annual report.
The idea of global jet-setting on a private plane can’t help but be viewed as hypocritical for a man often heralded as a “crusader for renewable energy”. The Washington Post dryly notes that a few days after Musk called fossil fuels “the dumbest experiment in human history,” his plane burned through thousands of pounds of jet fuel flying 300 miles from Los Angeles to Oakland on its way to take him to a competitive video gaming event.
Musk also tweeted “We know we’ll run out of dead dinosaurs to mine for fuel & have to use sustainable energy eventually. So why not go renewable now & avoid increasing risk of climate catastrophe?” – on the same day his jet flew over Mexico for a personal trip.
And surprise: Tesla doesn’t have any problems making excuses for Musk. The company told WaPo “Until we can teleport, there’s unfortunately no alternative that would allow him to do his job as effectively.”
While the company claims that it doesn’t cover the costs for Musk’s personal trips, it was also unable to provide to the Washington Post how it designates which trips are personal and which are for business. The company also didn’t provide an estimate for the bill for how much all of these trips cost. Musk’s travel also stands out versus other CEOs like Jeff Bezos, who flew 100 less flights than Musk last year and Tim Cook, who paid $93,000 in 2017 for private flights when Tesla spent $700,000 the same year.
Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware commented: “Do the rank and file get to use the company plane for vacations? Do the rank and file get to use company property for personal purposes? Of course not. They’re Tesla, as much as he is. This company has some real financial issues, and (he’s) spending other people’s money.”
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2ShJqPp Tyler Durden