Elon Musk introduces his new right-wing fans to a carbon tax; goes as well as you’d expect
Elon Musk is introducing his new right-wing fans to the idea of implementing a carbon tax, and it goes about as well as you would expect.
Over the last few years, Musk has become a sort of hero of the right.
Regardless of where you stand politically, it is a fascinating situation. I remember not too long ago when the right consistently attacked him for taking advantage of government subsidies at his companies.
A few years later, he buys Twitter, reinstates some previously banned conservative accounts, makes fun of Joe Biden and other democrats, starts to talk about “wokeness” and illegal immigration consistently, and now he is loved by the right.
Through this period, the once zealot climate change warrior who quit President Trump’s business council because he withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement, started talking a lot less about climate change and Tesla’s mission to accelerate to world’s transition to renewable energy.
On top of running six different companies, Tesla’s CEO is virtually a full-time political influencer now.
It is creating an interesting situation. For the first time in a while, Musk decided to use his massively popular X account to promote an idea perceived as left-wing (even though it shouldn’t be political): a carbon tax.
Musk wrote:
Musk has been pushing the idea of a carbon tax for a long time, and it’s interesting to see him introducing the idea to his new right-wing fans.
As you can imagine, it didn’t go too well.
Most of the top-voted comments underneath his post were responses that were quite negative. Here are a few examples:
I had to go down about 50 responses to see a positive response to Musk’s comment. It appears that for better or worse, Musk’s X profile is now dominated by his new right-wing fans.
Electrek’s Take
I am the first to admit that a carbon tax is difficult to implement correctly. In theory, it makes a ton of sense. In fact, free-market conservatives should love it since it fixes the market.
A free market only works if it’s fair and all external costs are accounted for. If external costs are not accounted for, the market becomes inefficient and fails.
A carbon tax accounts for the external costs of emitting carbon. It fixes the market inefficiency – making the true costs (including environmental) accounted for in the costs of the products. The products best for the environment would come up on top.
Now, to agree with that, you need to agree with the vast majority of environmental scientists who say that humanity’s carbon production is contributing to the acceleration of the Earth’s warming.
Yes, the climate has always naturally changed for billions of years, but it doesn’t mean that humans starting to pump billions of metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year is not accelerating it. The data looks clear.
For example, the amount of solar energy the earth is receiving has followed the natural cycle of the sun, and yet, global temperature has increased massively amid increased industrialization:
Therefore, at the very least, we can agree that products emitting less carbon over their entire life cycle are less risky of negatively affecting the environment. So why take more risk?
So, a carbon tax would, at the very least, help reduce the risk of this crazy experiment that humanity is conducting by unearthing carbon and burning it into the atmosphere in incredible amounts.
Now, I agree it’s hard to implement correctly. There are a lot of different aspects to it. For example, it works best if it’s global. Everyone needs to get on board. There’s the idea that the US shouldn’t get involved unless everyone gets involved, but that’s a decision between being a positive leader or accepting to be part of the problem because others don’t want to be part of the solution. I don’t like that mentality.
Also, it needs to be meaningful with a fair price. There have been carbon taxes before, but they had minimal impact because they haven’t really accounted for the trillions of dollars that burning fossil fuels costs worldwide every year.
It’s an incredibly difficult tax to make it fair, but I think it’s one worth doing. There could be a way to do it while reducing other taxes and encouraging people to live lifestyles that emit less carbon. And if you want to keep doing it, you can. It’s just that now it will reflect the true costs of the products.
As a side note, I hate to get too political. I’m not a very political person. I don’t believe that a lot of truly meaningful change in history came from politics and politicians. I don’t consider myself left or right. I approach every issue with an open mind. Please keep that in mind before for call me a leftist for endorsing a carbon tax.
In fact, I think we should go back to the days when this was a bipartisan issue in the US. Conservatives often claim that their side has the better economic policy, and nearly every economist is in favor of a carbon price – because unpriced externalities are a market inefficiency, and a carbon price solves that. Plus, a group of influential republican luminaries, including Bush and Reagan’s Secretaries of State George Shultz and James Baker, Bush’s Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and conservative economist Greg Mankiw have all endorsed a carbon price.
One of the main problems is that it’s called a carbon “tax,” and many people, especially conservatives, have a visceral reaction to that word. If that’s your case, please try to get past it and understand the reasoning behind it.
Finally, please keep the comment section civil.
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Toyota has the worst climate lobbying score of any automaker, and the third-worst 2030 EV production plans, according to InfluenceMap’s annual report on climate lobbying.
Another year, another report showing how bad Toyota is for the environment.
Toyota has routinely ranked at the bottom of InfluenceMap’s climate policy engagement rankings, and this year is no different.
InfluenceMap routinely ranks automakers and auto industry associations based on how much they lobby to stop climate policy goals. These rankings don’t just show automakers’ EV plans, but also show how much each automaker is doing to try to stop governments from protecting the populace from pollution.
Some of this lobbying comes from automakers themselves, and some of it comes from their membership in trade associations, which aggregate the positions of several companies to increase lobbying power.
InfluenceMap looks at the actions of these trade associations across the globe, and ranks automakers based on how many associations they’re a member of, how many briefs they’ve filed in favor of or against various climate policy goals, and what their plans are for the future of their manufacturing.
This is broken down into an “organization score” (how much the organization itself lobbies), “relationship score” (membership in trade organizations and how positive their lobbying efforts are), “engagement intensity” (how involved in lobbying the corporation is), and what the manufacturer’s EV manufacturing plans total up to.
Tesla led the list, but only received a “B” score because of its low engagement intensity. While Tesla supports positive climate policy and is generally a member of groups pushing positive instead of negative climate policy, it doesn’t lobby as much as other organizations do (a situation that may be made worse by the departure of Tesla’s policy head in April).
Some other automakers were given kudos for occasional positive moves, like Ford, GM, VW and Mercedes. But pretty much nobody got what could be considered a passing score – with “C-” grades or worse for all but three automakers.
And as usual, the Japanese automakers are ranked among the lowest. The Japanese EV industry has been slow to electrify, putting an important national industry at risk. Nissan is the standout from amongst the Japanese, but it still did not receive a passing grade.
On production plans, most automakers score poorly, with only 3 of the 15 automakers analyzed having commitments compatible with the International Energy Agency’s target of 66% EVs by 2030. This number is necessary to have any chance of limiting climate change to 1.5ºC. Forecasts suggest the industry will only produce 53% EVs by 2030 at current pace.
Toyota does not actually rank last place on this measure – Honda and Suzuki are behind it. But given the intensity of Toyota’s negative climate lobbying, it gets the crown for worst automaker on climate once again, continuing the several years it has worn it.
For more detail into the rankings, read the full InfluenceMap report here.
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To ensure its new Mustang Mach-E Rally car is ready to tackle any terrain, Ford set up a secret course to test it. Ford says its new electric rally car is a testament to what’s possible when you combine passion with design and engineering. Check out how the Mach-E Rally car evolved below.
The electric Mustang rally car is here
“Can we make a rally-inspired version of the Mustang Mach-E?” Ford’s product planners, Peter Schultz and Craig Migliori, were asked in 2022. Their answer? Absolutely.
Shultz and Migliori took a “hand-me-down” Mustang Mach-E GT and added new wheels and off-road tires. After testing it at Ford’s Michigan Proving Grounds, they were confident it could become a reality.
The team lifted the Mach-E GT 1″ with RallyCross-tuned shocks and springs to enable it to tackle rougher terrain. Meanwhile, 19″ wheels wrapped in Michelin CrossClimate 2 rubber and underbody shielding are added to help protect the vehicle.
Not only did the Rally car need off-road capability, but the team also knew it needed a rugged design to accompany it.
Contrasting accents on the upper and lower body moldings, a front splitter and rear spoiler, and a black painted steel roof are added for a more aggressive style. The Mustang Mach-E also features built-in rally-inspired fog lights.
To prove the modifications were worthy, Ford off-road attributes engineer Chris Berchin and vehicle engineering supervisor Jay Kistler put the electric Rally car up to the test.
Ford sets up secret rally course for testing
The team set up a secret 500 combined mile “torture test” course at Ford’s Michigan Proving Grounds. The new course was designed to put the Mustang Mach-E Rally through the equivalent of about ten years of monthly rallycross racing.
Tests included tight turns through loose dirt terrain. “We tested in numerous different weather scenarios and temperatures with conditions ranging from muddy to dry – typical of what rallycross competitors might face,” Berchin explained.
“Likewise, the surface is dirt of varying composition, allowing for different traction scenarios.” Before building the course, the team went to Rallycross events and interviewed drivers to make sure they were projecting a true representation of what the environment looks and feels like.
Using this info, Ford engineers plotted the course with a full computer-aided engineering (CAE) analysis, complete with mapping elevation, exact speeds, timing, and more.
Ford used the tech to make it feel and look like a rally course with data to back it up. The secret in-house course enabled Ford to keep cost and development time down while keeping the electric rally car under wraps.
Ford’s RallySport drive mode unlocks the full potential of the electric Rally car, enabling bigger slides, a more linear throttle response, and aggressive damping for better control.
The Mustang Mach-E Rally has 265 miles EPA estimated range with up to 480 hp and 700 lb-ft of torque. Charging from 10% to 80% is expected in 36.5 minutes. Ford’s new Mustang Mach-E electric Rally car is available for order starting at $59,995.
Are you ready to drive off in a new Ford Mustang Mach-E? You can use our link to view deals on the 2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E in your area.
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