QA few days after the presidential election, the American media are wondering – rightly – about the role that Elon Musk will play in the Trump government and in particular, whether he could make a positive contribution in terms of ecology. Will the boss of Tesla and Space from Paris?
During his election campaign, in which Elon Musk played a central role by allocating $110 million and an abundance of energy, Donald Trump was more measured than he had been before on the subject of electric vehicles. While he had announced that he wanted to stop sales during the Republican convention in August, he ended up qualifying his remarks. “I talk about electric vehicles all the time, but I don’t want to say I’m against it. I’m for it,” he said at a rally in Michigan. “I’ve driven them and they’re amazing, but they’re not for everyone.”
A change of tone (and position) which says a lot about the link which currently “unites” the two billionaires and which could, one can imagine, even hope, prove positive, at least on the environmental issue . After all, who knows ?
Two contrasting visions
Because Elon Musk, alongside his crazy conquest of space, also seems to be concerned about the future on Earth. Via Solar Roof, Tesla, for example, sells, among other things, energy solutions intended to “power homes with a solar and energy storage system”. “I think we should generally move towards sustainable development,” he told Donald Trump during a discussion broadcast live on X in August. “And I think solar power will account for the majority of energy production on Earth in the future.”
Obviously, the visionary's future prospects contrast with those, more narrow, of Donald Trump, who affirmed on Wednesday that he wanted to increase American oil production beyond current levels. This while the United States is already the world's largest producer. “We have more “liquid gold” than any country in the world,” he declared, freshly re-elected. More than Saudi Arabia. We have more than Russia. »
A timing problem
We already know that Elon Musk will occupy a central place (if not “the” place) in President Trump's entourage, without his role within the government having yet been specified. And there is no doubt that this place of choice will serve its interests in the years to come. But could it also, against all odds, positively influence Trump's environmental policy?
To Discover
Kangaroo of the day
Answer
“It’s a real question,” he told New York Times Paul Bledsoe, lecturer at the Center for Environmental Policy at American University. “Is Musk only defending the interests of Tesla and SpaceX? Is he simply a self-interested lobbyist? Or is he trying to influence Mr. Trump to recognize that, from an economic perspective, clean energy is a huge opportunity for the United States to surpass China? »
Relevant question therefore, but a timing problem could still exist in any case. Because although favorable to clean energies, Elon Musk completely excludes the notion of climate emergency which nevertheless has consensus within the scientific community. “We still have quite a bit of time ahead of us, we don't need to rush,” he said in August, referring to a mark of maneuver of still “50 or 100 years”, when the IPCC predicts an increase in damage linked to global warming by 2050 without significant action. That's in almost 25 years. The calculations are not good Elon!
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