Elon Musk tells Donald Trump ‘we should not defame the oil and gas industry’

Elon Musk, who is famous for owning an electric vehicle company and has said he wants to lead humanity to “a sustainable energy civilization,” told former President Donald Trump during an interview on X that “we shouldn’t vilify the energy industry.” oil and gas”.

Musk interviewed Trump on his social media platform, where the live broadcast was delayed more than 40 minutes due to technical difficulties. After long and incoherent discussions about immigration, inflation and foreign policy, Musk and Trump finally got to the topic of energy and climate change – where Musk surprisingly came to the defense of the fossil fuel industry.

“I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry and the people who worked hard in those industries to provide the energy needed to support the economy,” Musk said.

The Tesla CEO, who described his views as “fairly moderate” on energy despite owning an electric vehicle and a domestic energy company, said the economy would “collapse” if oil and gas companies were forced to close. Musk also said the planet could transition to a sustainable energy economy in “50 or 100 years” — despite the scientific community warning that humanity is quickly reaching a climate tipping point. (Trump later changed it to “500 to 1000 years,” which Musk did not correct.)

“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 forward with… It’s probably better to move faster rather than slower. But without defaming the oil and gas industry and without causing difficulties in the short term.”

But he quickly contradicted himself. Musk acknowledged that the air will become harder to breathe with continued use of fossil fuels, causing people “headaches and nausea.” But that was no reason to quickly abandon the use of planet-warming fuels. According to Musk, we can casually move towards a more sustainable future.

“We still have plenty of time,” he said. “We don’t need to rush.”

Trump, who often appeared to be slurring his words, joked that rising sea levels meant people would have more “oceanfront property.” This comment was quickly publicized by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign.

Trump then briefly touched on one of his favorite topics, electric vehicles, claiming that fossil fuel-powered power generation is what powers Tesla’s vehicles. “[We] I can’t get away from it right now,” he said.

But the EV discussion hasn’t gone much further than that, despite Trump’s promises to end subsidies for plug-in cars that could seriously impact Tesla’s sales. Trump urged Musk to put solar panels on the roofs of his cars. (Tesla filed a patent for a solar panel-covered tonneau cover for the Cybertruck, but did not follow through.)

“People talk about global warming or climate change, but they never talk about nuclear warming,” Trump said. “An immediate problem.”