Bill McKibben on Social Trust, Science, & Cryptocurrency — CleanTechnica Interview
This is the third article in a three-part series based around my recent interview with Bill McKibben, a legend in the world of climate activism and climate communication. In the first part, McKibben talked about climate grief, the climate crisis, climate activism, and US climate policy. In the beginning of the second episode, we talked about Tesla, unions, and Elon Musk. This article is about the same episode, but the second part of it, where we focused more on social trust, cryptocurrency, and Libertarianism. Personally, this was my favorite portion of the interview and I think the most important portion. (This portion of the interview starts at 13:07 into the SoundCloud and Spotify embeds below.)
In this part, I started off by asking McKibben to talk about how broken US society’s understanding of the scientific method is. I noted that we long saw this as a climate-specific problem, but that the pandemic highlighted how much it’s a broader problem, especially in times of crisis. Interestingly, McKibben quickly reframed that in an interesting and useful way:
“If you think about it, it’s not really a deep understanding of science that’s required, because I’m not sure people were way more scientifically literate in the ’50s when everyone lined up quite happily to get a polio vaccine. They were just more willing to trust in the sort of social structures of their world. And, you know, I get a front row to see what that old world kind of looks like ’cause I live in Vermont, which has the highest levels of social trust in the country, by all the ways that social scientists measure this. We’re very — you know, it’s a state full of villages. [It’s] the most rural state in the union, so people are used to governing themselves through things like town meeting every spring and things.
“Well, one result of this high level of social trust is that, despite the fact that it’s a rural state, with older people, with a Republican governor — all the things that should’ve led to big problems with COVID, it’s done a better job with it than just about any place in the world. Everybody went and got their vaccines. Everybody wore masks when they were supposed to. Those questions of social trust are really important, and they go back to some of these questions we were talking about when we were talking about, like, multi-zillionaires and things. You have to build societies that work reasonably well for everybody if you want to be able to make progress at all. Otherwise, you’ll end up in these worlds where people are full of rage and resentment and it turns to craziness — you know, someone tells them that it’s because Hillary Clinton eats babies or something, and then before long you’re off to the races. That’s the point I was trying to make before about how things are linked together.”
We talked a bit about how this attack on social trust goes back decades. I brought up former President Ronald Reagan and his attack on institutional trust with the line “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” McKibben recalled the whole line: “The nine scariest words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’” (I’m finding via Google that he said “most terrifying” rather than “scariest,” which is even more dramatic, but I assume he used both — and they are nearly the same, of course. Also, I guess just be repeating them here we are, to some extent, reinforcing the fear mongering.) With his literary talents, McKibben then stated, “It turns out that the scariest words are ‘we ran out of ventilators or the hillside behind your house just caught on fire.’ And those are things you can’t address by yourself. That’s why you need working governments and working societies.
“Forget Elon Musk, the really dangerous billionaires in our society are people like the Koch brothers, who just have spent their entire lives working to make sure that we don’t have working societies, working governments — and have undermined that so deeply that it’s very difficult now to make the progress we need when we’re faced with an existential crisis.”
I couldn’t have said it better.
I then took that into the topic of “the cryptocurrency craze,” since I think those efforts are a big factor at play here. “It’s basically saying, ‘Let’s drop social trust and trust in governments, and go to a much more energy-intensive system because we don’t trust each other.’” I should give credit where credit is due here and recommend strongly that anyone curious about this matter read: “Why Bitcoin Truly Is Bad For The Climate & Environment, And Counter To Tesla’s Mission” and “How Does Bitcoin Work? What Is Bitcoin Mining? What Is Bitcoin Backed By?” (the former of which was written by the same author who predicted far in advance that Tesla would shift to much greater use of LFP batteries, based on his thorough first-principles analytical nature).
I said, “I mean, yeah, governments are not perfect, unions are not perfect, but they’re better than a free-for-all, don’t-trust-anyone society where we don’t put trust in each other. These all link together.”
McKibben added, “Cryptocurrency’s actually a beautiful demonstration of that, because it’s precisely — the log behind it, the stated logic behind it, is precisely what you said. We don’t want to have to trust anyone, so we trust this strange algorithm or blockchain that almost no one can actually explain to anyone.”
Before changing topics, I just felt a need to put extra emphasis on the inconvenient truth of Bitcoin and similar such systems that many fans of the concept would like to ignore: “It’s not a comparable system to like ATMs, banks, and whatnot. This is specifically a highly, extremely energy-intensive system, and even if it’s using renewables, you’re taking renewable energy potential away from other uses, and every single plan that tells us how we deal with the climate crisis says — you need a huge growth in renewables, electric vehicles, and a huge cut in energy use. …
“And you saw Tesla adopted it, saw humongous spikes in energy use and coal use — I don’t know where they found that data, but they did — and said, ‘okay, we’re not doing this any more because we saw the results.’”
McKibben rightfully and insightfully circled back to the political predecessors to this. “Your remark about Reagan before and that whole ‘the government is the problem’ thing — that’s the most important thing that happened in our political lives, in my political lifetime — the rise of this Libertarian notion that we should all just look out for ourselves — turns out to be the most dangerous of ideas, and it’s incarnated in things like Bitcoin that are quite clearly about not wanting to trust anybody else. And the fact that you have to burn a huge amount of energy in order to make it happen is just sort of the cherry on the top, you know.
“But it is unbelievably aggravating to think of people trying to desperately win this race to get more low-carbon energy out there and having, by now, non-trivial amounts — one, two percent or something of the planet’s energy — you know, the equivalent of a Scandinavian country worth of energy — being used for no good reason.”
Indeed.
McKibben also talked a bit further about the deeper history of Libertarians like the Koch brothers buying their control of the Republican Party, and the party’s now total blockade of good climate and energy policies. He also made an interesting comparison by pointing out that although those old oil, gas, and coal guys have very little in common with the Silicon Valley community, “the one place that they overlap is in this devotion to the idea everything would be better if government would just get out of their way. And everything isn’t better when government gets out of the way.” It’s an insightful link, and it does of course bring to mind Tesla’s recent decision to move its HQ to Texas, something that had not happened at the time of this interview. Texas, the land of — “We will take away voting rights. We will take away companies’ rights to mandate that their employees be vaccinated. We will take away basic rights of women. We will make it easier and incentivized for women who have been raped to also be criminalized. We will block human rights. But we will let corporations pollute as they wish and do whatever they want just as long as it isn’t too progressive.” But let me get back to what McKibben was saying:
“Yes, government is annoying, other people are annoying some of the time. Here’s a way to think about it that I try to think about it sometimes — when you think about this basic question of whether you want other people around, or whether you want to go off in a space capsule. Most people will tell you that college was maybe the best years of their lives. That’s what all the old alumns who come back to the college where I teach are always going on about. It’s not because, you know, they loved Sociology 101 so much. It was because it was the only 4 years in an American life where you actually lived the way that most people have lived for most of human history — in close physical and emotional proximity to a lot of other people. And that’s annoying. Sometimes the guy down the hall has the stereo on too loud at two in the morning. But it’s also deeply gratifying. There’s always people around to bounce ideas off of, do things with. You have a community, you know.”
I’ll leave it there. To hear more, listen to the full podcast.
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See part one of the Bill McKibben interview here: “Bill McKibben On Climate Crisis, Climate Grief, Climate Action, & US Climate Policy — CleanTechnica Interview.” See part two here: “Bill McKibben On Unions, Tesla, & Elon Musk — CleanTechnica Interview.”
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Environment
Ram is once again delaying its first electric truck: Here’s when you can expect to see it now
If you’re waiting on Ram’s electric pickup, you’ll have to wait a little longer. Ram is yet again delaying its electric pickup truck, the 1500 REV, and the Ramcharger plug-in hybrid (PHEV) version. Here’s when you can expect to see them reach dealerships now.
When is Ram delaying its electric pickup truck until now?
Ram’s first electric pickup truck was initially scheduled to arrive by the end of 2024. Last year, former Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said the launch date would be pushed back to the first half of 2025 and then 2026.
Here we are, and the Ram 1500 REV is still nowhere in sight. According to a new memo sent to suppliers, Ram is again delaying the electric pickup truck.
The note, viewed by Crain’s Detroit Business, said production is now being pushed back until summer 2027. It will now arrive as a 2028 model year. The plug-in hybrid (PHEV) Ramcharger version will also be delayed until the first quarter of 2026.
Stellantis confirmed the news in a statement to Crain’s, saying the delay was due to “extending the quality validation period.”
A company spokesperson explained in an email that Stellantis “continues to reassess its product strategy in North America to align it with our competitive advantage with the Range Extended Ram and in light of slowing consumer demand for half-ton BEV pickups.”
After pulling the PHEV Ramcharger ahead of the EV pickup last year, Stellantis blamed weak demand for electric trucks.
Outperforming the competition, or falling behind?
The Ram 1500 REV will be available with a massive 168 kWh battery, which provides an estimated 350-mile range. Ram said a larger 229 kWh battery option would be available later, with at least 500 miles range.
Tavares promised for years that Ram’s EV pickup would “outperform all competitors” where it matters most in range, towing, and charging times. The Ram 1500 REV is expected to arrive with a towing capacity of up to 14,000 lbs and a 2,700 lb max payload.
In comparison, Ford’s F-150 Lightning offers a driving range of up to 320 miles, a 10,000-lb max towing capacity, and a 2,000-lb max payload capacity.
The 2025 Chevy Silverado EV offers up to 492 miles of range, 12,500 lbs of towing capacity, and 1,800 lbs of max payload capacity.
Tavares said last year that Stellantis is “facing a very significant amount of workload” with the first electric Jeep and Dodge models, the Wagoneer S and Charger Daytona, rolling out.
Stellantis sold 2,595 electric Jeep Wagoneer S and 1,947 Dodge Charger EV models in the US in the first quarter of 2025.
Ford F-150 Lightning sales are down 7% compared to last year, with 7,187 models sold through March. Meanwhile, GM sold 2,383 Chevy Silverado EVs, 3,479 GMC Hummer EVs (including the SUV), and 1,249 GMC Sierra EV models in the first three months of the year.
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Tscherning, a large Danish construction company, announced that it returned its entire corporate fleet of Tesla vehicles because of Elon Musk.
In Europe, Tesla is suffering from major brand damage due to its CEO’s involvement in politics.
Sales had already been declining in 2024, but the decline dramatically accelerated in 2025 after many people started to become increasingly concerned about Musk’s backing of Trump and far-right political parties in Europe.
The problem is that not only is Tesla missing out on new sales, but current Tesla owners are also rushing to sell their vehicles because they don’t want to be associated with the brand at all.
This is also true of corporate sales, which are popular in Europe.
Last year, we reported on Rossmann, one of the largest pharmacy chains in Europe. Rossmann had a large Tesla corporate fleet and decided to sell it because of Musk’s actions.
Tscherning, a large Danish construction company, was in a similar situation. It had electrified its corporate fleet using Tesla vehicles, but it announced this week that it returned them all:
At Tscherning, we not only decide how we drive – but also who we drive with. That’s why we’ve chosen to hand over the keys to our Tesla company cars – not because Tesla has become a bad car, but in light of Elon Musk’s political commitment and the opinions he has publicly expressed (and which are increasingly hard to overlook), we as a company have chosen to say “thank you for the ride.”
The company added that it doesn’t want to be “associated with the values and political direction that currently accompany the Tesla brand.”
It will instead buy “European alternatives” to Tesla vehicles.
Tscherning shared a video of returning its Tesla vehicles:
Electrek’s Take
The situation for Tesla in Europe right now is not sustainable. I’m afraid there will likely be major layoffs and even store closures.
Despite the availability of the new Model Y for the full quarter, Q2 is currently tracking about the same as Q1, which was down 40% year-over-year:
The two lines at the bottom are Q1 and Q2 2025. As you can see, they are tracking way bellow every single quarters in the last 3 years.
And now with corporate fleets being returned and existing owners selling their cars, if you really want a Tesla, you are way better off buying it used with those cratering prices.
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North American homeowners who drive EVs can bump up against limited residential electrical capacities when it comes to installing Level 2 chargers. ELECQ is changing the game with the debut of its Power Monitor, which places smart EV charging at the core of home load balancing and solar integration.
ELECQ Power Monitor solves home energy headaches
Home EV charger installation can be tricky due to limited electrical panel capacity and the high cost of upgrading a home’s service. Without smart systems, that often means wasted solar power, higher energy bills, and chargers that trip the system when too much is running at once.
Active Load Management (ALM) solves this by dynamically balancing a home’s total energy usage, allowing EVs to charge without overloading the system or requiring costly upgrades. This is where ELECQ’s home energy management system comes in. The ELECQ Power Monitor tracks your home’s load and communicates with the ELECQ Level 2 EV Charger.
ELECQ Power Monitor automatically balances residential loads in real time, eliminating the need for expensive electrical infrastructure upgrades. It intelligently prevents overloads, enhancing the safety and reliability of your home’s electrical system. By proactively managing your home’s energy use, ELECQ ensures you avoid overload risks, keeping your family safe and your electricity stable.
Seamless solar EV charging
ELECQ’s real-time monitoring and intelligent algorithms maximize EV charging directly from solar-generated energy. This reduces reliance on the electrical grid and fully utilizes your solar investment, and it also improves household energy efficiency. The ELECQ Power Monitor unlocks three solar charging modes to maximize the use of excess solar energy to charge your EV:
- Only Solar mode: Exclusively uses solar-generated power for EV charging, entirely bypassing grid power.
- Solar Priority mode: Prioritizes solar power for EV charging but supplements with minimal grid power if necessary.
- Unlimited mode: Utilizes solar power primarily while the grid provides supplementary energy as needed, ensuring maximum charging speed.
Using the ELECQ app is a breeze
ELECQ’s intuitive app offers homeowners effortless management and scheduling of EV charging, providing real-time visibility into your home’s energy consumption and solar production.
The ELECQ EV charger hooks up to both 2.4G and 5GHz Wi-Fi, plus Bluetooth, so you can manage charging straight from the Elecq app—anytime, anywhere. Set it to juice up during off-peak hours and save cash on your energy bill. And you’ll automatically get the latest over-the-air updates.
The ELECQ app makes setting up and using the Power Monitor a breeze, too. You can schedule charge times, track how much power you’re pulling from the grid or your solar panels in real time, and see exactly what each session costs. Need the receipts? You can export detailed reports for every charge, right from the app.
Safe and reliable technology
The ELECQ Power Monitor and Level 2 EV charger are built with safety and reliability at the core, so you don’t have to worry when the weather or the grid gets unpredictable. The system keeps an eye on your home’s electrical load and solar production, using high-precision sensors that help it operate smoothly with panels up to 200 amps. Everything is UL certified, RoHS compliant, and tested to prevent overheating, short circuits, or fire risks.
Whether it’s a lightning strike or a power surge, ELECQ has your back. With 10kV/5kA surge protection and tough NEMA 4 and IK10 certifications, this setup is made to handle just about anything, from blizzards to blazing heat. That means it not only protects your home, but also your EV battery and charging hardware. The EV charger is safe to install indoors or out. Plus, the ELECQ Power Monitor uses Wi-Sun technology to automatically communicate with the ELECQ Level 2 EV Charger – it doesn’t even need wifi.
The ELECQ Power Monitor is UL-certified, ensuring it meets strict U.S. safety and performance standards.
Why choose ELECQ?
ELECQ stands distinctively apart from other home energy solutions like Tesla and other traditional chargers because it’s universally compatible with solar installations and actively optimizes energy consumption.
- Unlike Tesla’s more closed ecosystem, which often requires proprietary components like the Powerwall and Gateway, ELECQ offers an open and flexible solution. This reduces installation complexity and minimizes ecosystem lock-in, ensuring broader compatibility with diverse home energy setups.
- Compared to traditional chargers, ELECQ enables millisecond-level data transmission with high reliability and strong wall penetration by adopting Wi-SUN, and minimal interference—unlike traditional Wi-Fi connections, which often suffer from instability and limited coverage.
ELECQ saves money and energy
The ELECQ Power Monitor and Level 2 EV charger not only combines smart home energy management with Level 2 charging but also delivers substantial savings on money and energy.
ELECQ smartly taps into your solar setup to make sure you’re squeezing every drop of clean energy out of it. That means less grid power, lower energy bills, and more money in your pocket. And since you’re using more renewable energy and less fossil-fueled electricity, you’re also shrinking your home’s carbon footprint without even thinking about it.
Order the ELECQ Power Monitor on Amazon here.
Order the ELECQ Level 2 EV charger 50A on Amazon here.
Transform your home energy future with ELECQ
ELECQ empowers homeowners across North America to manage energy more efficiently, reduce energy costs, enhance safety, and fully capitalize on solar investments. With ELECQ, smarter, greener home energy management is finally accessible and effortless.
Discover how ELECQ can redefine your energy future today. Follow ELECQ on Facebook here and on LinkedIn here.
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