Brickbat: Getting Charged Up

New York state Sen. Patricia Fahy (D–Albany) has introduced a bill to strip Tesla Motors of its permits for in-person sales in the state over CEO Elon Musk's actions in the Trump administration. "The bottom line is, Tesla has lost their right to promote these when they're part of an administration that wants to go backwards," said Fahy, who has previously been a supporter of electric vehicles. "Elon Musk was handed a privilege here." Tesla is the only dealer allowed direct in-person sales in the state. Meanwhile, Assemblymember Bobby Carroll (D–Brooklyn) said he wants to end all direct sales, forcing manufacturers to sell through franchises. "It allows for small businesspeople to be actors in this market," Carroll said. "They're not perfect, but they are clearly significantly better than the alternative. If we allowed the expansion of direct sales, what would happen is two or three people would control so much."