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Why Musk is supporting former Exxon Mobil CEO for Secretary of State

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President Donald Trump greets Wendell P. Weeks, right, Chief Executive Officer of Corning, as he host breakfast with business leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, Jan. 23, 2017. On the left of is Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Elon Musk shocked social media when he tweeted an endorsement of Rex Tillerson as the next US Secretary of State on Tuesday. Musk has a few good things to say about Donald Trump leading up to his Presidency and Trump’s choice of the former CEO of Exxon Mobil seems to be a slap in the face to anybody who is concerned about global warming and the role fossil fuels have played in it.

Exxon Mobil is currently being investigated by the attorneys general of the New York and Massachusetts. Both contend the company knew of the harm that burning fossil fuels could do to the environment 40 years ago but elected to spend billions funding special interest groups to oppose the climate change message being put forth by James Hansen, The Union of Concerned Scientists, and others.

Weaning the world off fossil fuels is one of the central themes of Elon Musk’s plan to build compelling electric cars and promote solar power. What could he possibly find appealing about the CEO of the largest oil company in the world?

Yesterday, The Economist endorsed Tillerson and Musk tweeted shortly afterwards that he agreed with The Economist.

Musk added, “Rex is an exceptionally competent executive, understands geopolitics and knows how to win for his team. His team is now the USA. I share The Economist’s opinion that he should be given the benefit of the doubt unless his actions prove otherwise.

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Has Elon deserted his loyal fans who tend to be rather more ecologically aware than the norm? Apparently not. Later in the day, he revealed the reason why he supports Tillerson for Secretary of State.

Musk is betting that Tillerson will be able to influence Donald Trump to accept a carbon tax, something Musk has been advocating for since he first joined Tesla Motors. It is a way to eliminate what economists refer to as an “untaxed externality,” something that is a cost of doing business that is not incorporated into the price of finished goods.

Musk delicately refers to the fact that fossil fuel companies largely avoid paying the environmental and societal costs of their activities  as “the turd in the punchbowl.” During the COP21 Paris climate summit, he made a compelling case for a carbon tax to a distinguished audience at the Sorbonne. In Tillerson, he seems to believe he has an important ally.

Musk has also been present at a number of meetings with Donald Trump, leading some to question whether his apparent support for the new President could alienate some of Musk’s traditional supporters. Until now, Musk and Tesla have been careful not to become embroiled in the divisive political storm that is roiling America.

Treading carefully between the needs of his businesses, the needs of his customers, and the policies of the new government may be one of the toughest challenges Musk has ever faced. Uber, for instance, has suffered a backlash from people incensed that CEO Travis Kalanik has accepted an appointment to one of Trump’s policy forums for business leaders. Musk is also a member of the same forum, but so far there has been no political backlash against Musk and Tesla.

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Tesla is doing what Trump wants other car companies to do — build more American factories that employ American workers. But SpaceX is dependent on NASA for a significant portion of its future income. Of all Musk’s business ventures, it can least afford to alienate the current occupant of the Oval Office.

Musk may have made a carefully calibrated political calculation with regard to his working arrangements with the administration, but his support for and trust in Rex Tillerson seems to be grounded in the belief that a carbon tax is vital step to the fight to limit the damage from the consumption of fossil fuels. Unless and until he does something to break that trust, Tillerson and Musk will remain what Washington watchers for decades have called “strange bedfellows.”

"I write about technology and the coming zero emissions revolution."

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SpaceX’s biggest test yet arrives this week and it’s not a rocket launch

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SpaceX will report second quarter results after the market closes on Tuesday, August 4, marking the first time the company has opened its books to the public since its record IPO in June. Management will host a live audio only webcast at 4:30 p.m. ET, streamed on X, with no dial in option.

The debut carries more weight than a typical first quarter as a public company. Two trading days after the release, on August 6, the first tranche of SpaceX’s lockup expires, freeing roughly 911.5 million insider and employee shares, worth well over $100 billion at current prices and the largest such release in Wall Street history. A second, larger tranche tied to the stock trading 30 percent above its $135 IPO price never triggered, since shares have spent most of July trading below that price.

Wall Street’s models point to revenue near $6.9 billion for the quarter, up sharply from the $4.69 billion SpaceX reported in the first quarter, with a narrower per share loss than the $1.27 posted three months earlier, according to estimates compiled by Motley Fool. Those numbers will be the first look at how SpaceX’s three segments, Starlink, launch and AI, are performing independently.

SpaceX scores another massive Pentagon deal to support military satellites

Investors heading into the call have a specific list of questions. How many net new Starlink subscribers did SpaceX add after ending March with 10.3 million, and is average revenue per user holding up as the service expands into lower income markets. How much of the AI segment’s revenue reflects contract signings with Anthropic, Google and Reflection AI this year, deals that combined could annualize to nearly $28 billion if fully ramped. Whether capital expenditures, which nearly doubled in the AI segment alone between 2024 and 2025, are still accelerating or starting to plateau. And whether management offers any forward guidance at all, something SpaceX has never done publicly.

The report will also land days after Elon Musk publicly denied a Wall Street Journal report describing internal planning to separate Tesla’s China business ahead of a potential Tesla-SpaceX merger. Whether Musk or SpaceX executives address that speculation on the call, even indirectly, maybe something investors will be listening for on Tuesday.

As Teslarati reported after Musk’s own warning to short sellers last week, the CEO has made clear he expects skeptics to be proven wrong over time. Tuesday will be the first chance for the numbers themselves to make that case.

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SpaceX’s Starship just got filmed by its own cargo

SpaceX released new footage of Starship in space captured by the Starlink satellites it deployed.

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SpaceX released a new video Friday evening showing Starship from an angle showcased by its own Starlink satellites, watching the rocket drift away in orbit.

The 65 second clip, posted on X, stitches together footage from four cameras mounted on a single Starlink V3 satellite. It opens with a close view of Starship’s 171 foot upper stage, still catching sunlight, then pulls back as the two spacecraft separate.

The footage comes from Starship’s 13th flight test, which launched July 24 from Starbase after a scrubbed attempt and an abort caused by an engine issue the week before. When Flight 13 finally flew, it carried the first batch of functional Starlink V3 satellites Starship has ever deployed, twenty of them, with six equipped with cameras meant to scan the ship’s heat shield during reentry.

Flight 13 checked most of its boxes. Starship deployed all 20 satellites, relit a Raptor engine in space, and splashed down softly in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia. Musk’s longer term plan calls for a Starlink V3 constellation of 100,000 satellites, according to a recent FCC filing, with Starship as the only vehicle capable of launching them at the volume that requires. Each Starship flight is designed to carry up to 60 V3 satellites once the vehicle reaches routine service, well beyond what Falcon 9 can carry in a single mission.

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Starship is next expected to fly with an attempt at catching the ship itself with the launch tower’s mechanical arms, a maneuver SpaceX has so far reserved for the Super Heavy booster.

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Tesla Model Y L’s new features flexed at unveiling event at Diner

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Tesla Model Y L in a field
Credit: Tesla

Tesla flexed the new features of the Model Y L with a dedicated media event at the company’s Diner on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles.

The Model Y L is the extended-wheelbase version of the all-electric crossover, which has been voted the best-selling car in the world on three occasions. The vehicle is already rolling off production lines at Gigafactory Texas, and first deliveries are slated to take place later this year.

Tesla brings Model Y L ‘Launch Series’ to the U.S. at $61,990

Teslarati was invited to the event, but due to some scheduling conflicts, we could not make it to Los Angeles. Instead, we will have our hands on a media unit sometime in August, so we’ll be able to spend some more extended time with the Model Y L.

However, plenty of those who made it to LA shared some cool features that set the Model Y L apart from the Model Y.

Multi-Row Climate Control

Tesla fitted the Model Y L with full climate control on all three rows on the front screen. It can be adjusted by selecting which row you’d like to modify on the right-hand side of the touch screen:

Better Rear Window Visibility

One of the strangest things about the Model Y, especially the Juniper iteration, is the rear window has extremely limited visibility when looking into the rearview mirror.

Tesla has improved upon this with the Model Y L:

PowerShare will be included

Model Y L will come with PowerShare in North America, with an 11.5kW output to your home. Tesla said it would require Powerwall 3 for operation.

Wireless Charging Pad

There has been some speculation that Tesla would upgrade the wireless charging pads in the United States, but this is not the case.

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Tesla owner fixes common feature complaint with crafty DIY retrofit

Tesla confirmed that it does not come with the cooled pads as the Y L in China does. This is because North America has not adopted Qi charging yet.

Thermal Management Improvements

These improvements in the Model Y L were seen with thermal management:

  • Up to 15% faster cabin cooling
  • +23% thermal efficiency gained in hot weather, 7 miles of real-world range gained
  • 8x more solar energy reflection off of glass roof
  • 30% reduction in solar energy entering the cabin

Demand

Tesla said the Model Y L is almost sold out in the U.S. It comes with

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  • 1 year of FSD Supervised
  • 1 year of Supercharging
  • 1 year of Premium Connectivity
  • Free exterior paint color, interior, and wheel option at no additional cost
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