What Elon Musk got right on climate

About Post-scarcity notes: As the staff of The Public Interest Network advocate for a cleaner, greener, healthier world, from time to time we’ll share observations on the larger challenge facing our network and our society: How do we shift the dominant paradigm — the very way in which we see and make sense of the world — from disposable to sustainable, from “never enough” to “enough,” from “making a living” to “living.” The views expressed in this space relate to our work, but do not necessarily represent the position of the network or its organizations.

In case you missed it, last week Elon Musk hosted Donald Trump on X for a long interview.

The media hasn’t been kind to the interview in general, with many commentators claiming Musk’s comments on climate change were hypocritical, self-interested, sycophantic or some combination of all three.

But is what he said actually wrong?

Not in my opinion. Or at least not all of it.

For example, Musk said, “I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry and the people that have worked very hard in those industries to provide the necessary energy to support the economy.”

I agree. Winning the public’s support for the clean energy transition requires earning the trust of a lot of people. Vilifying the oil and gas industry might excite some people within the progressive base, but it turns off a lot of people in the center and on the right – especially, as Musk says, those people who have worked very hard to provide people like you and me with the energy we need to power our lives.

Musk also claimed the economy “would collapse” if we forced oil and gas firms to shut down.

He’s right. Even if you have an electric bicycle, an induction stove and solar panels on your roof, there’s a good chance that burning fossil fuels provides at least some of the electricity you’re using. It certainly powers many of the schools, stores, offices, libraries, theaters and other buildings you might visit during your week. The clean energy transition is really hard because our society still runs, for the most part, on fossil fuels.

Musk also said that we should still move toward a sustainable energy economy and faster would be better than slower.

Right, obviously.

At that point, he adds, in a rhetorical U-turn, “we don’t have to rush” toward that new economy, even if continuing to burn fossil fuels will cause “headaches and nausea.”

OK, that’s just dumb. We do have to move as swiftly as possible – while keeping in mind that, unless we turn to some kind of climate authoritarianism, we can move only as swiftly as the public and our politics will allow. Perhaps that’s what Musk was getting at, but it’s certainly not what he said. Also, I might feel better about oil and gas if the worst side effects were headaches and upset stomachs. But that’s just silly.

Oh, and by the way, Musk deserves a ton of credit for warming Trump, i.e. the guy who’s ~50% likely to be our next president in case anyone needs reminding, to EVs. Trump has gone from “EVs are stupid” to “EVs are cool, but everybody doesn’t have to drive one.” That’s progress.

Trump may be a boor and a dangerous one at that. You might think the same about Elon Musk. But I just wish more people on both sides of the political spectrum would consider arguments about such issues as climate change and clean energy based on the merits; not on the person making the argument. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.