At the close of last year, Food & Water Watch saw a rise in supporters discarding their Tesla stocks and donating the money to us. Several told us they were protesting Elon Musk’s involvement with the Trump administration.  

“A lot of liberals initially got involved in electric vehicles to move away from the oil industry, and that was what motivated me as well,” said Food & Water Watch donor and activist, Lisa Rosenfield Podolsky, who donated her Tesla stock at the end of 2024. “Taking Tesla stock and donating it to worthy nonprofits like Food & Water Watch felt like turning tainted stock into something positive.” 

Lisa is not alone in her change in opinion on Tesla, as Elon Musk has seemingly done an about-face in his climate change messaging in a bid for political power. 

“I see Elon Musk as a megalomaniac using his financial interests and power to influence democracy and shape our world — and it disgusts me,” she said. “I have no desire to support him or anything he’s associated with.”

In the past few months, as the richest person in the world, Musk has bolstered Trump’s pro-polluter presidential campaign (including by donating many millions of dollars) and rolled back his previously strong stances on climate change. 

His influence in the new administration became clear when, in late January, the Trump administration offered a resignation deal to almost all federal employees closely mirroring Musk’s email to Twitter employees when he bought the company in 2022. This attempted purge of federal employees will have devastating impacts on the functioning of our government, including its ability to protect public health, clean air and water, and food safety.

Musk’s graceless reversal underscores that we can’t rely on billionaire CEOs to solve the climate crisis. We must fight for the future we need.

Elon Musk Flips on Climate for Political Power

Just a few years ago, many viewed Tesla as a leader in electrifying the U.S. fleet of vehicles, a significant source of climate pollution. In 2015, Musk warned that the danger of delaying the renewable energy transition, “worst case, is more displacement and destruction than all the wars in history combined.” At the time, Musk presented himself as a climate-concerned CEO with a commitment to advancing electrification. 

But Musk hitching himself to Trump and the far right has dissolved any illusions of genuine commitment to progress on climate change.

In a conversation with Donald Trump, Musk claimed that the transition to renewable energy can occur in “50 or 100 years.” This flies in the face of the scientific consensus that we must make a rapid transition to renewable energy, immediately. After he bought X, Musk’s changes to content moderation policies resulted in a 300% increase in posts containing language linked to climate denial.

Terrifyingly, he has also used X to promote far-right nationalist content, and he even made a Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration. 

Elon Musk Puts His Own Bottom Line Before the Environment

Despite Tesla’s climate bonafides as an EV company, its environmental track record is spotty at best. Since 2019, one Tesla factory alone has racked up over 110 air quality violations. 

Another plant in Austin, Texas, leaked hazardous wastewater untreated into the city’s sewer system, according to public records. One environmental compliance worker said that Tesla repeatedly asked them to lie to regulators “so that they could operate without paying for proper environmental controls.” All while Musk has boldly claimed, “Tesla has done more to help the environment than all other companies combined.”

Moreover, SpaceX, Musk’s company launching both humans and cargo into space, releases massive amounts of greenhouse gases with each launch. These launches are in service of the company’s stated mission of “making humanity multiplanetary” — never mind our current fight to create a livable future on this planet.

Additionally, per Texas regulators, SpaceX has repeatedly violated the Clean Water Act and state regulations by discharging excess pollutants into waterways.  

The company makes a terrible neighbor — near its launchpad in Brownsville, Texas, residents suffer from the pollution and safety threats caused by multiple rocket launches a year.

Community members are opposing the construction of a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility near the launchpad, due to growing risks of explosions and accidents. And they have seen little from SpaceX to allay their fears. “We’ve been left in the dark,” one advocate told Grist. Notably, LNG fuels SpaceX’s premier Starship rocket, expanding the market for this hazardous and climate-wrecking fuel. 

Big Corporations Won’t Solve the Climate Crisis — But a Grassroots Movement Can

Despite any “green” credentials, large corporations like Tesla have a singular priority: making money. They have little incentive to invest in curbing their emissions and pollution if they can profit anyway.  

Elon Musk and his 180-degree flip on climate change reminds us that CEOs and big corporations will go where the wind blows most in their favor. If we expect them to be leaders in the fight for our planet, we will only be disappointed.

Big corporations will cut their climate emissions only when elected officials pass policies, like the Future Generations Protections Act, that mandate major changes in our energy uses and require the transition to renewable energy. And this will only happen with a strong, broad-based grassroots movement pressuring our elected officials. 

For twenty years, Food & Water Watch has helped build this movement. We have built networks and grassroots power to win important strides. Together, we can change our country’s energy landscape at the speed needed to stop the worst impacts of the climate crisis. We’re building a brighter, electrified future with public resources that serve everyone, not just those at the top.

“For those who consider themselves activists, it’s sometimes hard to pick yourself up fight after fight, but we have to do the work,” Lisa reminds us. “[Food & Water Watch is] what I would call a scrappy nonprofit — getting in the trenches and fighting alongside all of us.”

Billionaires and big corporations won’t save the planet — we will, together.