The administration still doesn’t want to talk about pardoning Ed Snowden or reforming the ECPA (Electronic Communications Privacy Act), but it has stepped up to cherry pick another petition from the pile over at We The People. The petition, which asks for the government to step in and force states to allow Tesla to sell its cars directly to customers, was created more than a year ago. That puts it right on pace for petition answers, which still average nearly 300 days from the date of creation.
The petition is a little misguided but is an understandable response to state after state protecting incumbent car dealerships by attempting to force Tesla to sell through an established middleman. The amount of tax revenue generated by successful dealerships makes it very hard for state politicians to say “no.” It’s become so common over the past few years that the introduction of Tesla-targeting legislation is a fairly accurate barometer of political corruption.
The petition is simple: force states to allow Tesla to sell directly to consumers. The problem is that the Administration can’t rewrite state laws on the fly.