Oil & Gas Lobby Leader Purchases Tesla Model 3 to ‘Counter the Protesters’

While Tesla drivers are trading in their EVs at record rates, an unlikely buyer is investing in a Model 3 in solidarity with Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

US Oil & Gas Association (USOGA) President Tim Stewart says purchasing a Tesla is his way of “protesting the protesters.” In an interview with Fox Business, he calls those who are vandalizing Teslas and picketing its showrooms a “veritable army of morons” who “squeal like a stuck pig” when the government is “held to a standard of accountability or efficiency.”

USOGA President Tim Stewart (Credit: US Oil & Gas Association)

Those protesting DOGE argue that Musk, the richest man in the world, should not be conducting mass layoffs without a thorough review of each position, especially since he is not an elected official and has conflicts of interest given his companies’ lucrative government contracts.

Stewart says he is countering those protests by “opening my wallet. And since it will be charged using electricity that is generated by natural gas—it makes sense to give it a shot.”

The nod to natural gas is perhaps a way to soften the juxtaposition of an oil lobbyist promoting an EV. The USOGA aims to “promote national public policy that supports exploration and production for the domestic oil and natural gas industry,” according to its website.

The USOGA account on Musk-owned X recently re-posted an article calling climate change a “scam.” Musk does not share this view, though in January, he tweeted, “Climate change risk is real, just much slower than alarmists claim.” That same month, Musk argued that “sustainable transport is inevitable.”

This is Stewart’s second EV. He bought a Volkswagen ID.4 in 2022, arguing that he needed to “walk the walk as this [EV] transition is underway.” However, he tells Fox that the car was a “colossal piece of German-engineered crap” due to software glitches and delivery delays. “The only real value in this experience is being able to complain about it whenever I am on TV,” he said.

President Trump, meanwhile, has labeled Tesla vandalism an act of domestic terrorism and threatened to send perpetrators to an El Salvador prison.

About Emily Forlini

Senior Reporter

I’m the expert at PCMag for all things electric vehicles and AI. I’ve written hundreds of articles on these topics, including product reviews, daily news, CEO interviews, and deeply reported features. I also cover other topics within the tech industry, keeping a pulse on what technologies are coming down the pipe that could shape how we live and work.

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