For someone as rich as Elon Musk, a $1.5 million fine isn’t a huge deal. But it’s the reason that Tesla is being forced to pay it that makes it big. The car company’s reputation as being a “green” company should take a hit after being caught violating environmental laws.
According to DW:
A US court has ordered Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. to pay $1.5 million (€1.3 million) to settle a lawsuit that alleged the company disposed hazardous waste without following the proper regulations.
The investigation of violation of environmental laws by Tesla was initiated by the San Francisco district attorney’s office in 2018. It soon turned into a combined civil environmental case by 25 district attorneys from across California.
The prosecution alleged that Tesla violated the laws by improperly disposing used lead acid batteries, antifreeze, paint and electronic waste at its car service and energy centers throughout the US state.
“While electric vehicles may benefit the environment, the manufacturing and servicing of these vehicles still generates many harmful waste streams,” San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement.
While the end result of not burning fossil fuels makes electric vehicles popular with some people, they generally have to willfully ignore the aspects of building and maintaining EVs in order to meet their desired levels of virtue signaling. From destructive lithium mining the the massive amounts of fossil fuels used to generate the electricity that EVs use, it’s apparent to those paying attention that they’re not nearly as “green” as the powers-that-be want us to think.
Add in Tesla’s sins and one might come to the conclusion that “green” activists pushing for electric vehicles may be doing more harm to the environment that proponents of gas-powered vehicles.
Image by Maurizio Pesce via Flickr, CC BY 2.0 DEED.
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
