Elon Musk is back at it again in the replies with his contentious tweeting — and this time, he’s taking the Department of Environmental Protection to task.
The billionaire brought the heat in response to a Tweet that showed a screenshot of a New York Post article that claimed New York City pizzerias would soon be forced to cut 75% of their carbon emissions.
“This is utter bs. It won’t make a difference to climate change,” Musk passionately penned.
This is utter bs. It won’t make a difference to climate change.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 26, 2023
The new rule is being proposed by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) requiring pizza shops in the Big Apple to install emission control (air filtration devices) in coal and wood ovens to monitor output.
But it’s not such an easy task, according to The Post, pizza shops that use these kinds of ovens would have to work with an engineer or architect to figure out how to use the devices.
This would, of course, be a major expense for many small pizza shop owners.
“All New Yorkers deserve to breathe healthy air, and wood and coal-fired stoves are among the largest contributors of harmful pollutants in neighborhoods with poor air quality,” DEP spokesman Ted Timbers told The Post. “This common-sense rule, developed with restaurant and environmental justice groups, requires a professional review of whether installing emission controls is feasible.”
Musk’s sentiments towards the new mandate are not completely out of pocket as he has long been vocal about climate change and the potentially devastating effects it can have — he does own an electric car company that hit a $1 trillion market cap last year, after all.
“Climate change is the biggest threat that humanity faces this century, except for AI,” Musk told Rolling Stone in 2018.
He’s also openly squabbled with fellow billionaire Bill Gates about the issue. Last summer, Gates asked Musk to work together on a climate change initiative, and Musk rejected him due to Gates’ half-billion short position against Tesla at the time in June 2022.
“Sorry, but I cannot take your philanthropy on climate change seriously when you have a massive short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change,” a leaked text message from Musk to Gates said at the time.
Musk’s Tesla was down just 0.18% in a one-year period as of Tuesday morning.