Are we all OK with billionaire Elon Musk's Tesla sucking up enormous amounts of public money because his trendy $100k cars allegedly help prevent CO2-induced bad weather?

Tesla drives California environmental credits to the bank - latimes.com

When Tesla Motors reports its first-ever profit Wednesday, much of the money will come courtesy of the state of California.

In its zeal to push electric cars into the market, the state has created a system in which Tesla can make as much as $35,000 extra on each sale of its luxury Model S electric sports sedans. That's because the Palo Alto company qualifies for coveted state environmental credits that it can turn into cash.

These Zero Emission Vehicle credits could put as much as $250 million in Tesla's coffers this year, according to one Wall Street analyst, and they are a key reason the 10-year-old automaker has survived this long. Tesla gets to sell the credits to other automakers that need them to satisfy tough California regulations.

Elon Musk  - Forbes

Net Worth
$2.7 B

Elon Musk [CEO of Tesla] - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

He is reported to have a 32% stake in Tesla, which is currently valued above $1 billion, as of March 2012