Elon Musk is right.
As I typed those words, I literally shook my head because there is very little I like when it comes to the bizarro bazillionaire from South Africa. I don’t like that he wormed his way into Donald Trump’s inner circle by spending $250 million to help get him elected. I don’t like that after the election Musk was given a pseudo title to run a pseudo government organization called DOGE, under the auspices of which he managed to disassemble critical federal agencies and capriciously fire thousands of federal workers.
I don’t like that while “down-sizing” those federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, Musk enabled his team of hackers to access the personal information of every American. Nor do I like that what Musk and his fellow tech bros — and the Trump White House — will do with that information is yet to be determined. (I’m willing to bet it will be financially and politically profitable for a precious few at the top, and will expose the rest of us to data mining of our finances, political views, shopping habits, travel, social media posts, and sexual preferences, to name just a few possibilities.)
And I don’t trust Musk. I don’t trust that his xAI facilities in Memphis will follow environmental regulations if the regulations don’t suit their mercurial CEO. Musk has never played by the rules, and frankly, Memphis lacks the clout to make him do so, should he choose not to.
But Elon Musk is dead right about one thing: The “big beautiful bill” currently bouncing around the halls of Congress is an absolute environmental disaster. Here’s what Musk posted on his X account: “The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country! It’s utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”
He is exactly right (and yes, I’m aware he owns an electric car company). The bill proposes to basically reverse what has been U.S. energy policy for years by eliminating billions of dollars in incentives that were slated to go to solar production facilities, wind energy projects, factories to build energy saving appliances, and, yes, electric cars. On the strength of those incentives, billions of dollars in clean energy production investments had been made and construction had moved forward on thousands of projects, large and small. Under the latest incarnation of the BB Bill, that funding would be summarily eliminated, stranding production and construction, and ending what Musk called “millions of jobs.”
The new bill also eliminates consumer subsidies for rooftop solar, electric vehicles, heat pumps, and other energy-efficient technologies.
And it gets worse. Not content to merely claw back promised investment incentives in clean energy projects, the bill also imposes new taxes on existing wind and solar projects and farms, and penalizes them further if they utilize materials from China, which supplies many of the materials used in the production of renewable energy.
“They’re proposing an outright massacre with punishing new taxes on these industries,” said Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. “It’s a death penalty.”
So why would Republicans cut the legs out from under all the country’s investments in green energy, even the ones benefiting their own states? Here’s a hint: Donald Trump thinks the United States should get its energy from oil drilling and coal mining, as God intended. He campaigned vociferously against green energy because, well, … heavy batteries will sink boats and sharks will eat you? Who knows? It’s Trump. It doesn’t have to make sense. It’s been made abundantly clear over the past eight years that Republicans will do whatever Trump wants them to do. The stupid is a feature, not a bug. And besides, global climate change doesn’t exist because windmills will kill bald eagles. So there.
Let’s give the last word on the bill to my new pal, Elon: “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” he said. “Shame on those who voted for it.” Musk added that if the bill is passed, “It would be political suicide for the Republican Party.” Right on, Elon! Let’s hope you’re right again.