In the ongoing conflict of sorts going on between electric carmaker Tesla and various US states over whether Tesla can sells its cars directly to the public, the US government has decided to stay away from the issue.

Several US states have been opposing Tesla's move to sell its cars straight to the people via a streamlined model which does not require dealerships. The laws which are currently in place in these states make it mandatory that all new automobiles should be sold through dealerships, not via the Internet.

To circumvent these state laws, Tesla had petitioned the White House to preempt state dealership laws. The petition on the White House's "We The People" site has been signed by 138,469 people who want the Obama administration to give Tesla the permission to sell its cars directly to consumers.

The petition, filed in June last year, reads thus: "States should not be allowed to prevent Tesla Motors from selling cars directly to customers. The state legislators are trying to unfairly protect automobile dealers in their states from competition. Tesla is providing competition, which is good for consumers."

In response to the petition, White House spokesperson Dan Utech has hinted that the administration will not be able to help Tesla sell cars directly to consumers because ".laws regulating auto sales are issues that have traditionally sat with lawmakers at the state level."