Elon Musk is ‘not good for America or the world,’ according to himself
Elon Musk is participating in the “dumbest experiment in history” and is “not good for America or the world” – and both of those quotes come from Elon Musk, himself.
(Note: every use of quotation marks in this article is a direct quote from Elon Musk, in the context of climate change and the Paris Agreement)
In Donald Trump’s first day in the Oval Office (after committing treason in 2021, for which there is a clear legal remedy), he once again announced that he wants to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement.
This action would result in a hotter climate, which means more environmental destruction, more displacement of people, more death and higher costs for Americans and everyone else on the planet, likely causing “more displacement and destruction than all the wars in history combined.” (Unless, of course, it is mitigated by Trump’s impotence as so many of his previous attempts at environmental destruction have been)
And, like last time, pulling out will weaken the position of America on the world stage. The move allies the US with such luminary states as Iran, Libya and Yemen, the only three other countries in the world not to ratify the Paris Agreement.
This order was not unexpected, as Mr. Trump did the same “dumb” thing in 2017, which President Biden reversed right away in 2021. Mr. Trump also campaigned in 2024 on a platform of causing environmental destruction, committing to pump the brakes on the environmental and economic progress of President Biden’s policies and forfeiting the boom in American manufacturing they brought.
Mr. Trump justified this withdrawal by using the same “propaganda from the carbon industry” as he has in the past, showing his lack of understanding of the Agreement, of science, and of the economy, as we covered before. And just like last time, the public overwhelmingly opposes withdrawing from the agreement, by about a 2.5x margin.
But what has changed this time is the response from technology company CEOs, who previously correctly stated that pulling out of the Paris Agreement is not good for the world, and now are actively participating in the very destruction they decried in the past.
In 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg both decried pulling out of Paris, saying that it harms our planet and our future, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos vowed that Amazon would continue to follow Paris goals (which it hasn’t followed through on).
But this time, all three of those spineless husks not only stayed quiet, but also personally donated a million dollars each to the very environmental destruction that they previously claimed to oppose.
Despite the silence of these cowardly billionaires who have fallen in line with destroying the planet’s future (again, their words), international leaders have at least correctly called out Mr. Trump’s actions for their stupidity and feebleness. The UN’s climate secretary, Simon Stiell, said that the door remains open for the US to rejoin just as last time, and pointed out that the world’s energy transition is unstoppable. And the US Climate Alliance, a coalition of states and cities that was formed in 2017 to protect their residents from Trump’s destructive actions, also vowed to continue to work to solve the problem that Trump wants to worsen.
Most likely, the most significant thing the US’ withdrawal from this global effort to solve a global problem will do is to ensure that America is unable to lead that inevitable transition, and will hand that lead to China. Congratulations Mr. Xi, you’re welcome for the global leadership position we’ve granted to you. Signed, the republican party.
And as another business leader pointed out in the past, “the only thing we gain by slowing down the transition is just slowing it down. It doesn’t make it not occur. It just slows it down,” but that “the faster we can bring that date forward, the better.”
That business leader is Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who runs a company whose mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
Musk has previously called climate change the “dumbest experiment in history.” He acknowledges that it will cause “more displacement and destruction than all the wars in history combined.” He said that carbon is the “turd in the punch bowl” of our atmosphere and “if countries don’t take action, they all will share in a bad future.”
You can read a transcript of his landmark 2015 speech on climate change at the Sorbonne here, or watch the video above.
And, in 2017, when Mr. Trump said he would drop the US out of the Paris Agreement, Musk responded wisely at the time by departing from a council of business leaders that Mr. Trump had assembled. Musk said he did so because “Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.”
However, deep in the throes of his current social media addiction that resulted in him losing ~$35 billion of his and other people’s money, Musk now seems to have lost any portion of himself that pretended to care about the planet.
Not only has he recently displayed that he doesn’t know even the basics of how climate change works, but he is now actively a part of a decision that he previously said was “not good for America or the world.”
As a thank you for his massive bribes to Mr. Trump’s campaign, Musk has been appointed to the Department of Government Efficiency. This is not an actual department, but an advisory panel with no official authority.
It was created to be helmed by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, two of the supposedly most intelligent and capable republican operatives, who nevertheless have both been tasked to do a job that would normally accomplished by one person (Ramaswamy has since quit or been forced out, before the job even started). The panel has a redundant mission to the already-existing Government Accountability Office – making it a redundant office to reduce redundancy (no, this is not a Monty Python sketch, this is apparently real life).
So, despite being put in a position that is very clearly busywork to make him feel important – and in which he already admitted failure at the goals he set out for himself, weeks before even starting the job – this nevertheless means that Musk is a member of the team that has now signaled yet another withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. (And notably, nobody is talking about how he’s doing at his job running Tesla, which he’s doing badly, and is even lobbying to harm his own company as Tesla’s sales drop in a growing market)
But unlike last time, when he swiftly departed from Mr. Trump’s unofficial business council for doing something that he correctly pointed out as being bad for the world (and bad for his business selling renewable energy), Musk has instead spent the last couple days defending his use of an unambiguous Nazi salute in front of a live TV audience (which Nazis were very happy to see).
The salute was not out of character for Musk, given his history of white supremacist statements and his current support for German neo-Nazis. Musk’s support has been noted by Germans, both among the public and by one German auto CEO who sees it as a sales opportunity, as a Tesla boycott gains momentum in Germany due to Musk’s neo-Nazi advocacy.
He has yet to make a public statement leaving the administration that made this “destructive” decision, instead choosing to remain on and continue advancing the “dumbest experiment in human history” – and being “not good for America or the world,” according to himself.
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Aviation startup ZeroAvia says it’s been granted a “raft” of 45 new patents key to the development of practical large hydrogen aviation engines – and the company says it has 200 more H-related patents in the pipeline!
The news comes just weeks after ZeroAvia and Scottish regional airline Loganair announced a new, hydrogen-electric “turboprop” replacement motor capable of up to 5MW of shaft horsepower (~6,700 hp). United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) no. 12,341,225 covers an integrated hydrogen-electric engine design land is key to the development of a modular multi-MW hydrogen-electric engine for the ATR 42 and 72 model aircraft — which Loganair owns more than twenty of.
ATR isn’t the only potential customer ZerAvia is eyeballing, either. Despite hydrogen losing ground on utility-scale projects and more companies realizing that it’s “impossible” for hydrogen to compete as a transportation fuel, the fuel still seems to have some practical application in the aviation space. Both Airbus and Boeing have advanced plans and IP for hydrogen-ready airframes in recent weeks, as well, making the IP for large hydrogen-powered aviation engines that much more valuable.
“Recent patents filed and granted around hydrogen aviation give a window into an accelerating field of innovation,” explains Val Miftakhov, Founder and CEO, ZeroAvia. “As we see the large airframe manufacturers beginning to compete on technologies for hydrogen aircraft, there is a big opportunity for companies pioneering hydrogen propulsion systems. These are the inventions that will deliver truly clean, more affordable and highly efficient commercial air travel.”
What it’s all about
Like many tech-based startups, securing IP has been an integral part of ZeroAvia’s strategy, with the value of its patents being, essentially, the value of the company. Just as – if not more important to airlines like Loganair, American, and EcoJet, however, are the potential cost-savings of hydrogen compared to conventional aviation fuels like kerosene.
Importantly, these novel engines promise cost reductions for airlines. The substantially lower maintenance needs of hydrogen-electric engines will mean a decrease in maintenance and downtime for an airline’s fleet, with hydrogen fuel also projected to be significantly more cost effective than kerosene over time.
ZEROAVIA
You can read more about the new ZA600 and ZA2000 hydrogen-electric av motors here, and let us know what you think of hydrogen’s chances against traditional, kerosense-based aviation fuels in the comments.
SOURCE | IMAGES: ZeroAvia.
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You might want to hold onto your handlebars for this one – literally. The fashion-forward British electric scooter maker Bo just unveiled what could be the most extreme electric scooter the world has ever seen. Named The Turbo, this standing e-scooter isn’t just playing around with speed – it’s aiming to smash right through it and find out what’s waiting on the other side.
And it all begs the question, “How much is too much?”
When we talk about fast electric scooters, we’re usually in the neighborhood of 50 mph (80 km/h). But the Bo Turbo doubles those numbers.
With 100 mph+ (160+ km/h) top speeds and claimed acceleration that’s faster than a Tesla, this scooter seems to use a design philosophy pulled straight from the playbook of Formula One. Thus, it should come as no surprise that the team behind The Turbo includes engineers with experience from Williams F1 and the Bloodhound Land Speed Record rocket car.
The world’s fastest e-scooter?
Built on the same base chassis as the company’s sleek road-going Bo Model-M, The Turbo takes everything up a notch – actually, several notches. It features a 24,000 W dual-motor powertrain, 1,800 Wh battery, advanced traction control, and a power-to-weight ratio that reportedly beats a Bugatti Veyron.
At full power, the system is capable of propelling riders down a straightaway at three-digit speeds while standing upright. It’s absurd. It’s glorious. It’s gratuitous. It’s a dream. Or it’s a nightmare.
Bo says the machine is already delivering 85+ mph (137+ km/h) in early track testing at Goodwood Motor Circuit and is currently in development to push beyond the 100 mph barrier under Guinness World Record supervision.
And just in case you’re wondering if this is some experimental prototype cooked up in a lab – it’s not. The company is planning a limited run of built-to-order Turbo scooters, starting at a whopping $29,500. The first one is scheduled for delivery to a collector in Madrid during the 2026 Formula One race weekend.
From F1 brake ducts to street scooter DNA
Despite the headline-grabbing speed numbers, there’s a ton of serious engineering going on here. The Turbo uses ram-air intakes based on F1 brake cooling designs to keep the motors and controllers from overheating. The chassis – made from aerospace-grade aluminum and CNC-machined billet parts – is based on Bo’s proven Monocurve platform, the same structure that underpins the Bo Model-M. In fact, that might be the most impressive part of all, that the same chassis used underneath their everyday-ride-it-to-work Bo Model-M scooter is also holding together this 100 mph beast.
Bo’s team insists that despite the monster specs, The Turbo remains “surprisingly rideable.” Professional BMX rider Tre Whyte has piloted over 20 high-speed test runs, with the team now preparing to push the envelope even further.
A wild PR stunt – or something more?
It’s tempting to see The Turbo as just a headline machine (and hey, it works), but Bo says this project is about more than just chasing speed records. According to Bo CEO Oscar Morgan, “The Turbo is part of our mission to elevate these futuristic electric vehicles into the top tier of automotive performance.”
And honestly, they’ve got a point. E-scooters have exploded in popularity as low-speed urban vehicles, but the category rarely gets taken seriously in the performance world, despite the advent of racing leagues. Bo wants to change that – and they’re using motorsport technology to do it.
Electrek’s Take
Is this a practical daily rider? Absolutely not. But that’s not the point.
Bo is doing what so few e-scooter companies are willing to do – pushing boundaries, proving performance, and trying to make scooters feel exciting, not just functional. Whether The Turbo hits 100 mph or not, it’s already helped raise the bar for what electric micromobility can be. And if that means they develop safer and stable ways to build scooters along the way, then all the better.
The fact that they actually plan to sell these is a bit worrying, though the $30k pricetag means the local teens on your street aren’t going to be terrorizing the sidewalks with them. Well, not unless you’ve got an oil sheikh and his teenagers living on your street.
But hey, if you’ve got thirty grand and a need for painful death levels of speed – maybe this is your next toy.
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Environment
Chevron defeats Exxon in dispute over Guyana oil assets, clearing path for Hess acquisition
Chevron has prevailed against Exxon Mobil in a dispute over Hess Corporation’s offshore oil assets in the South American nation of Guyana, Exxon CEO Darren Woods told CNBC’s Becky Quick on Friday.
The ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce in favor of Chevron clears the way for the oil major to complete its $53 billion acquisition of Hess Corporation.
Chevron shares jumped about 3% in premarket trading.
“We disagree with the ICC panel’s interpretation but respect the arbitration and dispute resolution process,” Exxon said in a statement Friday.
The dispute had created significant uncertainty over whether Chevron’s acquisition of Hess would close, weighing on the oil major’s stock performance. The transaction would have failed if Exxon had prevailed.
Exxon and China National Offshore Oil Corporation had filed an arbitration case with the ICC, claiming a right of first refusal over Hess’s assets in the Stabroek Block, an oil development off the coast of Guyana.
Hess has a 30% stake in an oil patch, while Exxon leads the project with a 45% stake and CNOOC maintains 25% stake.
“We welcome Chevron to the venture and look forward to continued industry-leading performance and value creation in Guyana for all parties involved,” Exxon said.
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