Elon Musk says he has urged the Biden government to introduce a carbon tax as a way to encourage a faster shift to renewable energy, but he has been told that the idea is essentially “too politically difficult. ”
Musk described the conversation with the Biden government during a new podcast with Joe Rogan released on Thursday. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rogan asked Musk if a new technological breakthrough was needed to increase the use of battery-powered vehicles. Musk argued that the biggest problem is that a hell of a lot of batteries [are] needed ”to move away from fossil fuels and to renewable energy. The best way to encourage the shift, according to Musk, is to give ‘carbon price’.
“My first class recommendation is just to have a carbon tax,” Musk said. ‘Because we do not pay for the CO2 capacity of the oceans and the atmosphere, we have what is called an priceless externality in the economy. The market cannot respond to an unaffordable externality. If we just put a price on it, the market will respond in a meaningful way. ‘
Musk suggested that consumers should pay the tax, and discounts could be offered to people earning a lower income. A carbon tax could even further boost the playing field for Tesla’s electric vehicles, though Musk said SpaceX (which is currently trying to acquire natural gas resources in Texas to replenish its rockets) will have to pay.
“I talked to the Biden government, the incoming government, and they were like, ‘Well, that seems too politically difficult,'” he said. Musk said he remembers thinking, “That’s at least half the reason you’re elected, so why not just fight for it?”
This is not the first time the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has called for a carbon tax. According to Musk, Musk pushed the idea during early meetings with the Trump administration, but according to a 2017 report of “little or no support.” Bloomberg.
Musk has even previously called for an ‘uprising’ against the fossil fuel industry while leading the case for a carbon tax, and he accuses major oil companies of conspiring against Tesla. But he said on Rogan’s podcast that he was “not in favor of demonizing the oil and gas industry” because it would upset the people who work in it, and also to stop the operations altogether. that everyone “dies of hunger.”
‘We will have to burn fossil fuels for a long time to come. The question is just at what pace are we moving towards a sustainable energy future? he said.
‘There are people who have spent their entire careers in oil and gas, and they started in that career when it was not that bad to do. Then they’re like, ‘Hey, I’ve worked hard all my career just doing useful things, and now you’re telling me I’m the devil. This will make them quite upset, ‘he said, reflecting the remarks of late last year. “Honestly, the smartest thing the oil and gas industry can do is say, ‘Let’s do a carbon tax.’ We’ll just do a carbon tax, and it will not make us the devil. ”
One of Biden’s main field planks was his support for an aggressive clean energy strategy. He pledged to eliminate carbon pollution from the power sector by 2035 and achieve a “100 percent clean energy economy” no later than 2050. He even expressed support for ending subsidies on fossil fuels. And since taking office, he has re-committed the US to the Paris climate agreement. But he did not commit to a carbon tax, despite riots by other business leaders close to the administration and Finance Minister Janet Yellen, who said the climate crisis could not be solved without the price of carbon.