Letters to the Editor: Tesla owes its existence to California. Now it’s moving to antiabortion Texas

To the editor: Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk states the high cost of housing and the long commutes for his employees are reasons he is moving corporate headquarters to Austin, Texas. He seems concerned for his employees.

Is he concerned about his female employees’ reproductive rights? Is he showing concern for his employees’ right to vote? Is he concerned about the people of California who subsidized, with hundreds of millions of dollars of their tax dollars, the development of the cars he now sells around the world?

California created an environment encouraging the purchase of electric cars. It allowed Tesla to make money by selling emission credits. Musk is free to live in any state he desires, but he should not move Tesla after benefiting so much from the one it is leaving.

He should especially not move his company to a state that tramples on people’s constitutional rights and has a pretty bad electrical grid by choice.

Dean Okrand, Sherman Oaks

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To the editor: I watched the documentary on SpaceX’s Inspiration4, the first orbital space flight crewed by exclusively private citizens, and it inspired awe in me.

Reading about the decision by Musk, who founded and runs SpaceX, to relocate Tesla’s headquarters to Texas inspired disgust in me.

How does an intelligent person make a decision to relocate employees to a state that fails to protect the basic reproductive rights of women? To a state that actively works to deny voting rights to people of color?

Does Musk think it’s OK because the women who work for him make enough money to travel back to California for the care they need?

Or maybe it’s because he doesn’t care. I hope the people who own Tesla automobiles or are thinking about buying one do care.

Martie Levy, Santa Barbara