Anika Begay
Elon Musk, who is known for owning an electric vehicle company and has said he wants to lead humanity to “a sustainable energy civilization,” told former President Donald Trump in an interview on X that “we shouldn’t be vilifying the oil and gas industry.”
Musk interviewed Trump on his social media platform, where the livestream was delayed by more than 40 minutes due to technical difficulties. After long and confusing discussions about immigration, inflation, and foreign policy, Musk and Trump finally got to the topic of energy and climate change, where Musk, surprisingly, went so far as to defend the fossil fuel industry.
“I don’t think we should be vilifying the oil and gas industry and the people who have worked so hard in those industries to provide the energy that drives the economy,” Musk said.
“People who have worked very hard in those sectors”
The Tesla CEO, who has described his views on energy as “pretty moderate” despite owning an electric vehicle and home energy company, said the economy would “collapse” if oil and gas companies were forced to close. Musk also said the planet can transition to a sustainable energy economy in “50 to 100 years,” despite scientific warnings that humanity is rapidly reaching a tipping point on climate. (Trump later changed that to “500 to 1,000 years,” which Musk has not corrected.)
“So it’s not like the house is going to burn down right away,” Musk said. “But I think it’s something we need to move toward… It’s probably better to move faster than slower. But without denigrating the oil and gas industry and without causing short-term hardship.”
But he quickly contradicted himself. Musk acknowledged that the air will become harder to breathe with continued use of fossil fuels, causing people to “get headaches and get nauseous.” But that was no reason to quickly abandon the use of planet-warming fuels. According to Musk, we can safely stroll toward a more sustainable future.
“We still have quite a bit of time,” he said. “There’s no need to rush.”
Trump, who often seemed to slur his words, jokingly said that rising sea levels meant people would have more “oceanfront property.” That comment was quickly panned by Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign.
Trump then briefly touched on one of his favorite topics, electric vehicles, arguing that fossil-fueled power generation is what powers Tesla vehicles.[We] “I can’t help it right now,” she said.
But the discussion about electric vehicles hasn’t gotten much further, despite Trump’s promises to end subsidies for plug-in cars that could seriously impact Tesla sales. Trump has urged Musk to install solar panels on the roofs of his cars. (Tesla has filed a patent for a solar-panel tonneau cover for the Cybertruck, but hasn’t followed up.)
“People talk about global warming, or they talk about climate change, but they never talk about nuclear warming,” Trump said. “An immediate problem.”
