Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Elon Musk Challenges the Utility Companies  

   

Elon Musk, a Canadian-American entrepreneur and engineer, is the CEO of Tesla Motors. He worked closely with a team of engineers in order to produce the Tesla Roadster, which led to the development of the Model S that became a huge success in the US. Elon has more recently announced that Tesla will begin the development of an all-new product called "Powerwall". The company claims the Powerwall will be capable of storing power generated by solar panels on people's property, essentially removing them from the national power grid. As a result of this, many companies are not happy with this idea and state that it should not be allowed to go into production.
In my opinion, Elon Musk has every right to continue his business plan. In order to back my claim up, let's look at oil companies, which provide a service that destroys our world. As a matter of fact, oil is one of the key contributors to the climate change we are experiencing today.
Many people recognize the threat of climate change and have bought hybrids and electric cars as a result. However, there are still people  who do not like hybrids. Is this a problem with hybrids? No. I have met many people who claim that they hate hybrids but almost all of them are car fans and dislike hybrids because the cars are not gas powered, which to them signifies their inferiority. I am a car fanatic myself, I love the smell of a race track, to me there is nothing better than the smell of burnt rubber and race fuel. With that being said, I would like to own an electric car when I am older. Why? Well it is quite simple really.  If everyone drove a Tesla or some other form of electric car, then they would not have to pay for gas and there would be no worries about affecting the environment, as long as the electricity  is produced in a green manner. As a result, there is more gas for racing and sports cars, meaning that the people who would want to drive a gasoline car or go to a gas-powered racetrack, like myself, would not have to worry about damaging the environment, given that there will be too few gas-powered cars to really impact the environment.
Given that Elon Musk has already created a car capable of producing zero emissions, why are we trying to stop him from a. saving us from even more pollution and b. of course saving our wallets by launching his new solar power company? A big reason is that most of the electrical suppliers want us to believe that it is a bad thing because they want continued business. If everyone can generate their own power, they will no longer have a service to provide; thus they will no longer get money.  So my question is: Why should I care? The utility companies don't do anything unless it makes them rich, meaning that the reason they don't want Elon's business to take off is because they don't want the competition. By that logic, Apple should be able to tell me that I cannot make a computer because I did not pay them for it. That is not supposed to be the way America works; it is supposed to be that if someone decides to make a company, they can. The only thing stopping a person from becoming an entrepreneur should be his or her own failures; not the laws set in place by the big companies. It should be up to Americans whether they want to buy something that can only help them, or if they want to flush their money and future down the drain. In the end, if Elon wants to sell his product in the U.S., nobody should stop him.  
Elon Musk Challenges the Utility Companies

2 comments:

  1. Bravo, Tim! I did not realize that you had submitted another post before the end of the year. I think that you hit your stride in this piece by the time you reach the analogy to Apple, Inc. From there on, in particular, you succeed in arguing in favor of competition and in scrutinizing how America's values might shape this situation.

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