Daily Debrief: Tesla and California commit to green car tech

The fact that both California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom have added their names to the Tesla Roadster waiting list shows a serious Golden State commitment to the green technology behind the $100,000 sports car. On Monday, the company returned some of the love by announcing that it would be building its sedan manufacturing plant somewhere in Northern California. According to CNET Car Tech Senior Editor Wayne Cunningham, whom I spoke with in the Daily Debrief, this move is a win for both the company and the state.

Tesla Motors is currently headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area and, logistically, it just makes sense to keep its manufacturing close by (versus New Mexico, which was originally listed as a plant location). For the state, this decision will provide more green-tech jobs and reiterates its position as a green-tech leader. California has some of the most ambitious emissions legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020. Tesla doesn't plan on rolling out the second-generation cars until 2010, but in the state's eyes, the move to keep the plant local is a significant step in the right direction.

[savvydude]

Al Gore made the Kool-Aid and Arnold has become stupefyingly drunk on it. Look, we're all for clean air, more trees and any alternative that might one day become the cleanest fuel ever, but until then why can we not also drill for more gasoline to avert a national financial crisis? If the government is willing to invest in alternatives, cool - but since 99% of all vehicles run on gasoline, how about also investing in, and not hampering, a bigger oil supply?

How nice that Arnold and Gavin Newsom can afford a $109,000 electric car. Boy, if the government would buy us all one we could clean up the air in no time!

[clancysf]

Because driving an alternative fueled vehicle means that less than 99% of all future cars will be fueled with gasoline. Increased drilling poses a very real increased threat to our environment, especially in sensitive areas, and increased dependence on gasoline again threatens the atmosphere even more. We are running out of oil, or haven't you heard. It was the Bush administration's war and the greedy banking industry that resulted in the weak dollar and the financial ruination of the economy. Savvy people need to examine the exorbitant expenditures they pay for cell phone, pda connection charges and lattes not to mention their innumerable needless wastfull expenditures to understand how to afford gasoline.