The news was first reported by Reuters.
The Tesla CEO on Friday met president Joe Biden’s senior advisor for clean energy innovation, John Podesta, and Mitch Landrieu, who oversees investment in infrastructure, the White House said in a press briefing on Friday.
The meeting centered on how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act could advance electric vehicles, White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said in the briefing.
Jean-Pierre also said: “The outreach and the meeting says a lot of how important the President thinks the bipartisan infrastructure legislation is.” The $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill was signed into law in November 2021. It was designed to fund improvements in transportation systems, clean energy, and infrastructure for EVs. Spending of $7.5 billion was allocated towards creating a network of EV chargers across the US.
The meeting between Musk and Biden’s senior advisers comes despite a seemingly frosty relationship between the president and the Tesla chief. The pair have traded jabs since Biden took office in 2021. Tesla was excluded from an EV summit at the White House in summer 2021. In response, Musk said on Twitter that it seems odd Tesla wasn’t invited. Musk hit out at Biden for not being included and said in a panel discussion in August: (They) didn’t mention Tesla once and praised GM and Ford for leading the EV revolution. Does that sound maybe a little biased?
Biden praised GM and Ford in a January 2022 tweet for building more electric vehicles here at home than ever before. His failure to recognize Tesla’s contribution to EV production prompted Musk to respond: Starts with a T Ends with an A ESL in the middle.Around 40,000 Tesla fans signed a petition on Change.org in February calling for Biden to acknowledge Tesla’s leadership in the EV industry. They accused the Biden administration of intentionally ignoring Tesla’s work and said it was an insult to Tesla workers.
Insider contacted Tesla for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
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