NEW: There’s a new industrial alliance in Washington.

Tesla, Rivian, and Uber are joining forces with lithium companies, charging companies, and some of the country’s biggest utilities to form @zeta_2030.

Its goal: Make 100% of new vehicles EVs by 2030. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/11/what-donald-trump-taught-the-electric-car-industry/617124/

Some context: For decades, oil companies and automakers have worked together in DC, pursuing the same deregulatory goals.

For much of that time, oil companies have waged a long, hard, and losing war on electric cars.

For utilities, electric vehicles represent a huge growth opportunity. So climate advocates have hoped that utilities would fight back against oil firms’ war on them.

But utilities also work with (and buy natural gas from) those same oil companies, so they’ve often stayed silent.

But under Trump, the oil industry has won multiple fights—at the EPA and in Congress—at the expense of utilities and automakers.

The establishment of this new alliance—between EV makers, utilities, and the EV supply chain—shows that utilities are ready to fight back.

In short, the utilities hit the oil companies with this today:

And here’s my story about it: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/11/what-donald-trump-taught-the-electric-car-industry/617124/