homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Elon Musk schools CEO of biggest coal producing company in the U.S. after calling Tesla a 'fraud'

Father future vs Grandpa pee-in-his-pants past.

Tibi Puiu
October 11, 2016 @ 6:49 pm

share Share

musk-vs-asshole

Robert Murray, the 76-year-old CEO of Murray Energy Corp, showed up on CNBC this Monday to criticize Tesla for taking taxpayer subsidies and failing to turn enough profits.

“Tesla is a fraud! He’s gotten two billion dollars from taxpayers, has not made a penny in cash flow — here again, it’s subsidies! Hilary Clinton said ‘they need government help’. She was talking about Elon Musk,” Murray said in an Ohio accent. He runs the biggest coal producing company in the U.S.

“You could close down every coal-fired plant in the United States today and you would not affect the temperature of the earth at all. Not at all,” he added gleefully.

Those are bold accusations. To add insult to injury, almost everything Murray said is factually incorrect. This didn’t bode well with Elon Musk who took to twitter to school the old fox who isn’t quite ready yet to accept he’s dealing in an obsolete business — a cancerous one, too.

May I remind everyone that 99% of climate scientists, a.k.a. the experts here, agree that climate change is real, caused by humans and requires immediate mitigating action. Concerning Murray’s financial allegations, I don’t know if he is the worst investor ever or simply out to misdirect people. I stand by the latter because you can’t be in his business for this long and be that ignorant.

In 2015, Tesla received $2.4 million in subsidies after selling 50,000 vehicles. That’s just shy of two billion. I guess Murray missed three frigging zeroes.

Meanwhile, coal received $20 billion in subsidies last year. The US’s largest coal field, the Powder River Basin, makes $2.9bn a year in federal subsidies. This equates to $8 per tonne, almost 25% of the sale price.

Did I mention coal kills millions of people worldwide each year?

With that many Model S sales, there are more than a few pennies in cash flow. I hate to say it, though, but Elon’s company is also in a bit of financial trouble, much to Murray’s delight. Tesla Motors lost about $4,000 for every Model S it sold last year, and it burned $359 million in cash last quarter in a bull market for luxury vehicles.

Elon isn’t phased out about this minor setback, though. He has almost half a million pre-orders for the upcoming Tesla Model 3. He’ll have all the cash he needs in no time if Tesla Motors finds a way to honor all of these reservations. 

In the meantime, coal is tanking. The year 2014 saw demand for coal peak for the first time and has since dropped. Coal plants all over the world are getting shut down. The UK wants to get rid of all of them by 2025, for instance. Peabody Energy, the world’s biggest coal company, sold stocks below $1 when it used to be $72 in 2011. Really, coal is done for. As for Mr. Murray — he’s just another old owl who just can’t get with the program.

 

share Share

This 5,500-year-old Kish tablet is the oldest written document

Beer, goats, and grains: here's what the oldest document reveals.

A Huge, Lazy Black Hole Is Redefining the Early Universe

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a massive, dormant black hole from just 800 million years after the Big Bang.

Did Columbus Bring Syphilis to Europe? Ancient DNA Suggests So

A new study pinpoints the origin of the STD to South America.

The Magnetic North Pole Has Shifted Again. Here’s Why It Matters

The magnetic North pole is now closer to Siberia than it is to Canada, and scientists aren't sure why.

For better or worse, machine learning is shaping biology research

Machine learning tools can increase the pace of biology research and open the door to new research questions, but the benefits don’t come without risks.

This Babylonian Student's 4,000-Year-Old Math Blunder Is Still Relatable Today

More than memorializing a math mistake, stone tablets show just how advanced the Babylonians were in their time.

Sixty Years Ago, We Nearly Wiped Out Bed Bugs. Then, They Started Changing

Driven to the brink of extinction, bed bugs adapted—and now pesticides are almost useless against them.

LG’s $60,000 Transparent TV Is So Luxe It’s Practically Invisible

This TV screen vanishes at the push of a button.

Couple Finds Giant Teeth in Backyard Belonging to 13,000-year-old Mastodon

A New York couple stumble upon an ancient mastodon fossil beneath their lawn.

Worms and Dogs Thrive in Chernobyl’s Radioactive Zone — and Scientists are Intrigued

In the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, worms show no genetic damage despite living in highly radioactive soil, and free-ranging dogs persist despite contamination.