Elon Musk tried to launder Donald Trump’s disastrous climate record — it didn’t work

During their glitchy, rambling, two-hour “conversation” connected X past night, Elon Musk made the lawsuit to Donald Trump that clime alteration was existent and possibly electrical cars weren’t arsenic atrocious arsenic the erstwhile president has been making them retired to beryllium connected the run trail. The effect was a feeble effort by a once-lauded environmentalist to launder the erstwhile president’s disastrous grounds connected clime change.

Musk, who endorsed Trump pursuing the failed assassination attempt and is helping money a ace PAC supporting his election, tried to placate Trump by offering his ain enactment for lipid and state drilling and minimizing the menace posed by clime change. But helium besides attempted to triumph implicit Trump by offering a much MAGA-friendly transportation for his ain EVs.

“When you look astatine our cars, we don’t judge that environmentalism, that caring astir the environment, should mean that you person to suffer,” Musk said. “So, we marque definite that our cars are beautiful, that they thrust fast, they’re, you know, sexy, cool.”

It’s not wide that Trump tin beryllium convinced. Sure, the erstwhile president has sounded a much affirmative enactment connected EVs since Musk’s endorsement, but helium continues to marque the aforesaid arguments against them: they instrumentality excessively agelong to charge, they can’t spell that far, and they’ll outgo car workers their jobs. And his grounds connected the situation has been, to enactment successful Trump’s words, a implicit disaster.

During their conversation, Trump repeated galore of these aforesaid attacks portion besides praising Musk for making a car that galore radical privation to buy. (To beryllium sure, Tesla’s income person been slumping.)

“You bash marque a large product,” Trump said to Musk during the two-hour-long lovefest. “I person to beryllium honest, that doesn’t mean everybody should person an electrical car.”

On the run trail, Trump has falsely accused President Joe Biden of making the acquisition of gas-powered cars amerciable and trying to unit each Americans to power to EVs. In reality, the Environmental Protection Agency’s new substance system standards volition necessitate automakers to merchandise little polluting vehicles, galore of which volition beryllium battery-powered, but successful nary mode mandate EV-only sales. The medication has besides introduced user incentives to assistance bring down the outgo of EVs.

But if anyone has shifted positions connected EVs and clime change, it appeared to beryllium Musk. The Tesla CEO seemed to beryllium trying to get Trump and his supporters to enactment his company’s ngo to usher successful a much sustainable aboriginal — but successful the aforesaid breath, helium besides downplayed the urgency of that mission.

“I don’t deliberation we should vilify the lipid and state manufacture and the radical that person worked precise hard successful those industries to supply the indispensable vigor to enactment the economy,” Musk said.

He aboriginal claimed that the satellite tin modulation to a sustainable vigor system successful “50 oregon 100 years” — contempt the technological assemblage informing that humanity is rapidly reaching clime tipping points.

And Trump argued that EVs aren’t a cleanable solution due to the fact that the powerfulness required to complaint their batteries volition travel from fossil fuels until electrical grids modulation to cleanable energy.

“Even to make your electrical car and make the energy needed for the electrical car, you know, fossil substance is what truly creates that astatine the generating plants,” the erstwhile president said. “You benignant of can’t get distant from it astatine this moment.”

Generating energy utilized to complaint EVs can make pollution, but EVs themselves person nary tailpipe emissions and are wide seen arsenic preferable to gas-powered vehicles. Many states are successful the process of switching from fossil fuel-powered energy procreation to much renewable sources, similar star and upwind power.

Musk and Trump seemed to beryllium successful statement that combatting clime alteration shouldn’t travel astatine the disbursal of anyone’s idiosyncratic inconvenience. We don’t request to “stop farmers from farming,” Musk said, adding, “People tin inactive person a steak, and they tin inactive thrust gasoline cars.”

Of course, these statements disregard the world of clime change. Fighting clime alteration will necessitate immense systemic change, arsenic good arsenic tiny behavioral changes by individuals. Cattle and livestock are tremendous contributors to clime change, creating methane that becomes trapped successful the atmosphere, which past causes the satellite to lukewarm significantly. Meanwhile, cars make c dioxide, different greenhouse state that is liable for planetary warming. We each request to devour little reddish nutrient and thrust little to unrecorded much sustainable lives.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s policies person been geared toward forcing large industries to modulation to little polluting sources of energy, whether it’s powerfulness plants, automakers, oregon construction. Trump’s grounds is 1 of rolling backmost these measures and inviting large industries to pollute more. And his Supreme Court picks person formed decisions that volition marque it harder for immoderate medication to support the situation successful the future.

And yet Musk is hitching his wagon to Trump’s candidacy, a information that throws into question the former’s committedness to cleanable energy. During their interview, Musk mildly pushed his chosen campaigner to enactment renewable energy, similar star powerfulness — but instead, Trump expressed skepticism that clime alteration was adjacent the astir pressing threat.

“One happening that I don’t recognize is that radical speech astir planetary warming, oregon they speech astir clime change, but they ne'er speech astir atomic warming,” Trump said, switching the subject. It was clip to determination on.