Last week the governor managed a rare trick: He outraged everyone across the political spectrum. His hand-picked members on the Motor Vehicle Commission banned the sale of Tesla electric cars in New Jersey.
On the right, the National Review said that our governor "slapped free markets across the face."
In the middle, a headline in the California-based magazine Wired read, "New Jersey Bans Tesla to Ensure Buying a Car Will Always Suck."
And on the left, the Daily Kos accused Christie of being "in the pocket of the Koch Brothers and/or their Big Oil pals," adding, "Maybe Christie figured he’s on his way down the drain, so he might as well do one last solid for his puppet masters."
The same governor who whines constantly about over-regulation chasing businesses out of the state. "We need to talk about the fact that we’re for a free-market society that allows your effort and your ingenuity to determine your success, not the cold, hard hand of government determining winners and losers," Christie said.
Over the years, the dealers lobby has managed to get franchise laws enacted in almost every state in the union. That means carmakers can’t sell directly to the public, as Tesla does. And that in turn adds about $20 billion in cost to consumers annually, he said, or about $1,500 per vehicle.
More here:
http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf...ie_tesla_bridgegate.html#incart_most-comments
The article has a great video at the bottom with an economics professor who trounces the association's lawyer, Jim Appleton. Toward the end, Appleton argues with a straight face that Tesla has a monopoly on Tesla cars (like Apple has a monopoly on Apple products).
