If you think Elon Musk is more Godzilla than visionary innovator, you might want to ask who helped create the monster?

The short answer is the state of California with a lot of help from Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Newsom said as much last month speaking at a Clinton Global Initiative gathering.

What did Newsom say? To quote the governor, “There is no Elon Musk, there is no Tesla without California’s regulatory framework, period, full stop. It wouldn’t exist.”

Newsom was not overstating the obvious.

California almost suffocated Tesla with money that propelled Musk to where he is today as the $500 billion man.

There was the $7,500 EV credit.

There is the current sales tax exemption through Jan. 1, 2028 given to qualified buyers.

But, more importantly in terms of profitable tax flow, are the regulatory credits Tesla received and sold to other automakers — General Motors, Ford, and Daimler — to comply with the state mandate.

Without California picking winners and losers as well as mandating the end of the sale of new fossil fueled vehicles within the state by 2035, Musk likely wouldn’t have been chosen to head up the Department of Government Efficiency, better known as DOGE.

That’s why it is more than ironic that Newsom, who is making little effort to convince people he’s not running for president in 2028, is basically boasting he helped create Tesla and Musk.

A little background.

Tesla started in July 1, 2003 in San Carlos by two men — Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. They were inspired to do so after General Motors recalled electric powered vehicles dubbed EV1 that they had sold and had them destroyed. The pair concluded automotive firms producing gas powered vehicles had no stomach, or commitment, to build electric vehicles.

GM sold just 1,100 or so of the EV1s between 1996 and 1999. They deemed it would not be profitable to produce.

There was also a concern research would lead to a zero-emission hydrogen powered vehicle that would have much more flexible fueling capabilities than electric vehicles.

The decision of GM to pull the plug on the EV1 prompted the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to pull the plug on a 1990 mandate that car manufactures must meet a certain percentage of their new vehicle sales within in the state be zero-emission.

The second time around, Sacramento wasn’t leaving anything to chance hence the EV tax credits for buyers, the carbon tax credit scheme they imposed on traditional automakers and greenhouse gas producers such as oil companies that transferred massive wealth to Tesla, and the state sales tax exemption.

Tesla, in 2024, made $2.8 billion from carbon credit sales. That amount represents more than a third of Tesla’s profits.

In previous years, those carbon tax credits gave Tesla a lifeline and financed their expansion. Keep in mind the life support kept Tesla alive for much of the 17 years before turning a profit in 2020.

It is true Musk invested $5 million in Tesla in 2004 and that the car firm didn’t start its great leap forward until 2008 when he became the CEO, the same year the Tesla Roadster debuted.

That is after he co-founded Zip2 that created online city guides for newspapers that sold to Compaq for $307 million in 1999.

He then co-founded X.com that became PayPal that eBay bought for $1.5 billion in 2002.

Clearly, Musk has the mojo and the salesmanship needed to attract other investors.

That said, Tesla became the monster company it is thanks to the handiwork of the California Legislature working in concert with governors like Newsom. It was done so by the state mandating the  transfer of wealth from other companies, subsidizing well positioned buyers, and enhancing that EV buyers tax credit to qualified buyers making up to 400 percent of the poverty level by eliminating state sales tax through 2028.

The bottom line is the Godzilla of DOGE was forged through the wealth transfer policies of the California Legislature rooted in anointing winners in the marketplace.

Of course, that didn’t prevent Newsom from trying to cut Tesla buyers out of the state tax credit a year ago because Musk was politically biting the hand that fed him.

It should be noted Newsom’s failed attempt at political retribution would have undermined his proclaimed goal of zero new gas-powered vehicle sales in California starting in 2035.

The plug on that mandate – assuming the courts uphold the action – was pulled earlier this year by the federal government.

That, however, isn’t what voters may want to remember.

Such action would have impacted Tesla sales in the Golden State to the detriment of roughly 20,000 Northern Californians employed at the firm’s assembly plant in Fremont as well as the supply chain that produces vehicle components.

It didn’t happen.

That said, the collateral damage Newsom could have put in motion had the potential to devastate many California families.

Newsom has no right to express anger about Musk padding his bottom line by capitalizing on state regulations and wealth transfers engineered via tax credits.

Those regulations, made possible by Sacramento — and by extension Newsom — helped Tesla ballon into a $1.4 trillion company.

California’s electric vehicle mandate played a pivotal role in Tesla’s success. Newsom can take credit for that. But in doing so, he helped make what some view as the Godzilla of the tech world bigger than Musk could have done on his own.

—  This column is the opinion of Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Courier or 209 Multimedia. He may be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com