Tesla now has Superchargers in Alaska. A 4-stall high-speed Supercharger was installed in Soldotna, Alaska, a town on the Seward Peninsula, about 150 miles south of Anchorage. This means that Tesla now operates Superchargers in 49 of the 50 US states, with Hawaii still lacking one (unless the rumors of a secret station in Lanai are true). This charger in Alaska will most likely be used by Alaskan Tesla owners, as driving to Alaska with an EV is very difficult due to the lack of charging infrastructure in Northern British Columbia and the Yukon Territories. However, Superchargers connecting the West Coast to Alaska are likely in the works. Hopefully this Supercharger station will stand up to Alaska’s extreme weather and persuade Tesla to install more stations in The Last Frontier.

On Monday, the Biden administration announced a plan to deploy 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind turbines by 2030, creating tens of thousands of jobs and creating enough energy to power over 10 million homes. To meet that target, the government will speed up the permitting of offshore wind projects off the Atlantic coast. This is a big step for the Untied States, as its renewable energy efforts have not been nearly sufficient, especially under the Trump administration. Many other countries with lots of coastline have had offshore wind projects in the works for many years now, but the US was running behind, even with thousands of miles of coastline. Our country still needs trillions of dollars of investments to be even half powered by renewable energy, but this is a great start.

Early this morning, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that it is now possible to buy a Tesla car with bitcoin, the famous cryptocurrency. Last month, the company bought around $1.5 billion of bitcoin and announced its plans to start accepting the online currency. The automaker expects about 5% of transactions to be using bitcoin, but they are hoping for this to grow as cryptocurrency use becomes more widespread. It makes sense that Tesla, a futuristic company, would accept such a futuristic currency. But for Tesla, a company that makes such environmentally friendly products, accepting bitcoin seems like a step backwards. With millions of computers mining bitcoin nonstop, the annual carbon footprint of the bitcoin mining industry is larger than all of Argentina’s. And Argentina is a country of nearly 50 million people. Tesla has prevented hundreds of millions of pounds of CO2 from being pumped into the air, but accepting bitcoin as currency goes against what Tesla is as a company.

Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania announced a plan to produce 50% of the state government’s electricity with energy from the sun. The governor said Pennsylvania PULSE (Project to Utilize Light and Solar Energy) will begin operating on January 1, 2023. The project is the largest solar commitment by any US government so far. For the project, seven solar arrays will be built in six Pennsylvania counties. The project is estimated to be a total of 191-megawatts, producing 361,000 megawatt hours of electricity every year. According to Curt Topper, General Services Secretary, when PULSE goes into effect, utilization of solar energy will lower Pennsylvania’s annual carbon emissions by 157,000 metric tons, the equivalent of taking 34,000 gasoline-powered cars off the road. The project will also create over 400 jobs.

A Tesla Model Y driver with a suspended license crashed into a Michigan State Police car parked on the side of I-96 early this morning. The car was on autopilot, Tesla’s famous driver assistance feature.

The police were investigating a crash involving a deer and a car when the Model Y struck their cruiser. Fortunately, no one was injured in the accident. Both vehicles were damaged, however, and the 22-year old man in the Model Y was issued a citation for violating Michigan’s Move Over Law, and for driving with a suspended license.

“Michigan’s Move Over Law requires motorists to slow down and move over for stationary authorized vehicles with flashing, rotating, or oscillating lights activated,” according to the Michigan Office Of Highway Safety Planning.

Crashes like these most often happen when someone puts too much trust into the Tesla Autopilot system. Autopilot is a driver assistance feature, and does not currently offer fully autonomous driving. People are very excited about Autopilot and its features, (it is new technology after all) but it is easy to forget it is not yet meant to be what gets you from Point A to Point B.

Elon Musk has officially given himself the title of ‘Technoking of Tesla,’ with the CFO of the company, Zach Kirkhorn being named ‘Master of Coin.’ They both will keep their positions of CEO and CFO of the company, however. Although it is unclear exactly the inspiration of the new titles, they are probably related to the multi-billion dollar bitcoin purchase the company made last month.

Just days after Tesla lowered the price of both the Model 3 and Model Y Standard Range models by $1000, Tesla has omitted the option for the Standard Range Model Y. The Standard Range Model Y was just introduced a few weeks ago, despite Elon Musk saying the range was impractical. It was likely removed because of low interest, as the company expected.

This is a surprising move, because the low price of the Standard Range Model Y would have made it more of a direct competitor to new EVs, like the redesigned Chevy Bolt, VW ID4, and the Ford Mustang Mach-E. But it makes sense that Tesla would want to streamline the production process with fewer options, to hopefully prevent further quality issues and to continue lowering the production price of its vehicles.