Yahoo Autos Elon Musk's Alleged Drug Use Causing Concern For Tesla, SpaceX Board Members
Good morning! It’s Monday, January 8, 2024, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. Here are the important stories you need to know.
1st Gear: Elon Musk Is Reportedly Risking Billions In Government Contracts Because Of His Drug Use
Rumors of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s drug use have been swirling for years and not just because of that one time he smoked weed live on camera with Joe Rogan. It’s not folks who short Tesla stocks that are concerned, according to the Wall Street Journal, it’s his board members and executives who think his 52 year-old party boy lifestyle is interfering with running his mega companies:
Read more
Actors kept thanking a non-existent body at the Golden Globes
Spider-Man's MJ Face Model Asks Fans To Stop Stalking And Harassing Her
Would You Live in R. Kelly's Newly Listed $3 Million 'Chocolate Factory' Mansion? A Look Inside
Elon Musk Denies He Has a Drug Problem After Bombshell Report
The world’s wealthiest person has used LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, often at private parties around the world, where attendees sign nondisclosure agreements or give up their phones to enter, according to people who have witnessed his drug use and others with knowledge of it. Musk has previously smoked marijuana in public and has said he has a prescription for the psychedelic-like ketamine.
In 2018, for example, he took multiple tabs of acid at a party he hosted in Los Angeles. The next year he partied on magic mushrooms at an event in Mexico. In 2021, he took ketamine recreationally with his brother, Kimbal Musk, in Miami at a house party during Art Basel. He has taken illegal drugs with current SpaceX and former Tesla board member Steve Jurvetson.
People close to Musk, who is now 52, said his drug use is ongoing, especially his consumption of ketamine, and that they are concerned it could cause a health crisis. Even if it doesn’t, it could damage his businesses.
Several sources WSJ spoke to denied drug use is a problem for the CEO, saying the paper had “false facts” in its reporting, but refuse to point out which facts were false. Musk has often made childish references to the number 420 in his tweets, including post that got him in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The U.S. Air Force and NASA spent $5 million on a probe into both Musk and SpaceX after the Joe Rogan weed smoking episode, but have so far refused to produce the results of that investigation to the public.
So the guy putting out unproven technology on our roads and billions of dollars worth of rockets in our skies might be regularly tripping. We’re no prudes here at Jalopnik, but it seems once again Musk is being held to a different standard than even everyone else at his own company.
2nd Gear: EPA Is Reviewing California’s Plan To End ICE Sales By 2035
California is all in when it comes to the great EV conversion, which means at least a dozen states will be following suit. The California Air Resources Board passed a plan to ax internal-combustion engines by 2035 back in 2022. Now the Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing a requested waiver to the Clean Air Act, according to Reuters:
California’s rules set yearly rising zero emission vehicle requirements starting in 2026, which have been adopted by at least 12 other states.
President Joe Biden’s administration has repeatedly refused to endorse setting a date to phase out the sale of gasoline-only vehicles.
Under a separate EPA proposal released in April to drastically cut vehicle emissions through 2032, automakers are forecast to produce 60% EVs by 2030 and 67% by 2032 to meet requirements. Automakers have urged the administration to soften its proposal, which is expected to be finalized in coming months.
California’s proposal would cut smog production from light vehicles by 25 percent in 2037. Of course, Republicans are mega outraged by this attempt at making air more breathable in a place known for epic levels of smog. House Republicans moved to ban the EPA from moving forward with emissions regulations just last month.
