Because he forwards political causes in the US and abroad that are vehemently anti-global warming and anti environmental protection in general (among other things...). This will likely more than undo any contributions he's theoretically made.
He's a co-president with Trump recently forbidding mentioning climate change in documents, destroying ecology research, pushing energy policy EO supporting fossil fuel producers, and dumping federal EVs and existing chargers in the buildings. It looks like he just cares about the profit from EVs and completely disregards the environment part.
The richer Elon Musk gets, the more he (appears) to use that wealth to skew politics towards anti-"eco" policies. By giving Trump an unprecedented $250 million during the 2024 election, he may have even been the deciding factor in funding some of the advertising that led people to decide to vote Trump, or to stay home instead of vote for Harris.
And needless to say, Trump's policies on the environment ("drill baby drill") don't exactly align with the hippie stereotype of electric car buyers ("no more oil").
He was literally and directly funding targeted advertising that told people in Muslim areas that Harris supported Israel and in Jewish dominated areas that she supported Hamas.
He was working with Stephen Miller, one of the crazier members of Trump's team (no easy achievement), on this.
fwiw microtargeting ads is extremely common, all presidential campaigns for the past 20 years at least have been doing this. If you're not cynical about ~everyone in politics you're probably drinking too much microtargeted kool-aid (your favorite flavor!):
A CNN investigation found that Vice President Kamala Harris is running contradictory ads about the war in Israel, depending on where you live.
If you live in Michigan, a state with a dense Muslim-American population, you will see ads about how she supports the relief efforts in Gaza, where she says she "will not be silent."
The Michigan ad states: "What has happened in Gaza in the past nine months in devastating, we cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering," Harris is quoted in the ad.
If you drive East to Pennsylvania and flip on a television, you'll see the vice president at a different podium in an ad saying: "Let me be clear, I will always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel's ability to defend itself."
For the second ad, taken from her DNC speech, the part where she advocates for peace in Gaza was edited out. CNN reports it was taken out so her message could be more strongly accepted by Jewish voters in Pennsylvania.
> Which is odd as it directly goes against his own interests.
His recent interest is power. He can use that for profit later in many different ways - he's working on firing people who wanted to investigate his idea of using X as a payment network, for example.
