Sign In or Create an Account.

By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy

Sparks

MAGA World Loves a Cybertruck

Watch Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson get EV-pilled.

MAGA World Loves a Cybertruck
Illustration by Simon Abranowicz

By now, there’s a decent chance that you’ve seen a Cybertruck out in the wild — perhaps blocking the visibility at an intersection or surrounded by gawkers in the Whole Foods parking lot. And upon seeing it, I’ll bet you had precisely one question:

How does a Cybertruck function in rural Maine?

Tucker Carlson is on the case. On Monday, the Tucker on X host posted an hour-long video to determine whether a “man with a real job” could replace his F-350 with a Cybertruck. I’ll be honest: Out of respect for my time and sanity, I did not actually watch the entire thing. But within the first three minutes, Carlson’s interview subject — a guy who’d been loaned a Cybertruck for all of five days — confirmed that he could swap out his Ford for a Tesla with a resounding “so far, yes.”

It was not the only unexpected Cybertruck endorsement of Monday, however. On the other end of the Eastern Seaboard, at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump appeared in his own (also quite long) video with a far-right personality, the gamer Adin Ross. Over an hour into the livestream, Ross presented the former president with a custom Cybertruck featuring a red, white, and blue “Make America Great Again” wrap and the picture of Trump lifting his fist in the air after the attempt on his life in Pennsylvania emblazoned on its side. (In addition to possibly committing a campaign finance violation, the pair also inadvertently proved that the only thing more outré than owning a Cybertruck is owning a Cybertruck with your own face on it.)

For anyone who has followed the Republican Party’s stance on EVs, the fact that an all-electric truck is now apparently being used to own the libs might cause your head to explode. But on the other hand: Of course it is. While the far right has for years pushed the idea that EVs are somehow emasculating, Tesla designed the Cybertruck to be just the opposite. It’s such a conspicuously masculine status symbol that it provoked an anthropologist to wonder to The New York Times whether “I’ll ever see a nice lady driving this kind of car.” The right’s change of heart on EVs (or at least one EV) has also coincided neatly with Elon Musk’s announcement of a new conservative super PAC. (Musk is credited as the supplier of the loaner vehicle in Carlson’s video.)

But is it possible the right’s embrace of the Cybertruck could have benefits beyond giving us amusing, if extremely long videos? The upside, of course, is that the planet would be much better off if every person who’d ever bought a gas-guzzling truck to project an image of “rural culture and manhood” had decided to get an EV instead. Removing political and cultural barriers to EVs as a whole is certainly something to celebrate, even while the exact motivations remain suspect.

And hey, I won’t turn my nose up at more fast chargers in rural Maine.

Blue

You’re out of free articles.

Subscribe today to experience Heatmap’s expert analysis 
of climate change, clean energy, and sustainability.
To continue reading
Create a free account or sign in to unlock more free articles.
or
Please enter an email address
By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy
Sparks

The First Sign the U.S. Oil and Gas Sector Is Pulling Back

Three weeks after “Liberation Day,” Matador Resources says it’s adjusting its ambitions for the year.

Money and an oil rig.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

America’s oil and gas industry is beginning to pull back on investments in the face of tariffs and immense oil price instability — or at least one oil and gas company is.

While oil and gas executives have been grousing about low prices and inconsistent policy to any reporter (or Federal Reserve Bank) who will listen, there’s been little actual data about how the industry is thinking about what investments to make or not make. That changed on Wednesday when the shale driller Matador Resources reported its first quarter earnings. The company said that it would drop one rig from its fleet of nine, cutting $100 million of capital costs.

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow
Sparks

Trump’s Lawyers Told a Judge They Think They’ll Lose Their Own Lawsuit

The Department of Justice included a memo in a court filing that tears down the administration’s own case against New York’s congestion pricing.

Sean Duffy.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images, Library of Congress

Secretary Duffy, you have no case.

That was the gist of a memo Department of Justice lawyers sent to the Department of Transportation regarding its attempt to shut down New York City’s congestion pricing program. The letter was uploaded mistakenly on Wednesday into the court record for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s lawsuit challenging Duffy’s actions. Oops.

Keep reading...Show less
Blue
Sparks

Gargantuan Solar Project in Nevada Appears to Be Moving Forward

The Esmeralda 7 project is another sign that Trump’s solar freeze is over.

Solar panels.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The Esmeralda 7 solar project, a collection of proposed solar farms and batteries that would encompass tens of thousands of acres of federal public lands in western Nevada, appears to be moving towards the end of its federal permitting process.

The farms developed by NextEra, Invenergy, Arevia, ConnectGen, and others together would add up to 6,200 megawatts of solar generation capacity, making it the largest solar project in already solar-rich Nevada.

Keep reading...Show less
Blue