Elon Musk leaves Trump’s council after US exits Paris climate pact

Today, president Donald Trump announced that the United States would be withdrawing from the Paris Accord. As promised, Tesla CEO Elon Musk then announced that he would no longer be part of presidential councils based on Trump’s decision.

Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2017

Tesla isn’t the only company unhappy with today’s decision. Apple, Google, Microsoft and others penned a public letter to the president asking him not to remove the United States from the Paris Agreement. The CEO of GE, Jess Immelt also tweeted his disappointment in the withdrawal. GE builds many of the turbines used in power plants including a new hybrid turbine that uses batteries in additional to traditional energy sources.

Musk was part of Trump’s Business Advisory Council. That spawned criticism based on Trump’s comments on the environment. Musk’s reaction to that criticism has been that its better for him to be there to be a voice for his environmental ideals. But withdrawing from the Paris Accord was a deal breaker.

Under Paris deal, China committed to produce as much clean electricity by 2030 as the US does from all sources today https://t.co/F8Ppr2o7Rl

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2017

Ironically, several oil and coal companies including Shell, Exxon Mobile and Cloud Peak Energy had asked Trump to make sure the US continued to be part of international pact to reduce carbon emissions.