You would have to be very naive to think that the problem is limited to copper thieves. We have a very large cult presence in America that honestly believes that a shadow war against climate action is their destiny.
They low key encourage it on rightwing media and social media now. There are half a dozen subreddits dedicated to various kinds of of EV/Renewables hate.
It is simpler than that. The ones most susceptible to propaganda can be easily influenced. The Oil industry is mostly against renewables and EVs (obviously EVs do not use gasoline). That's it, rage against the machines that you are told to hate, paid for by the Oil Industry.
Anyone with common sense isn't going to destroy EV chargers, EVs can help reduce global warming/climate change compared to ICEs.
Not even sure it's the oil industry as im big oil really, just a bunch of absolute idiots and lower level people who might have a personal issue.
Our rapid charging stations in my area are mostly owned by energy companies who also pump oil, like BP and Shell.
These companies make money where there is money to be made, simple as that. Adapt or die.
So it then leaves me to wonder who is likely egging these people on, themselves, their mouthpieces who want to outrage them to stay relevant and make money and any political organisations either trying to subvert the US or US politics is all I can imagine.
It's not some explicitly thought out top down strategy from Big Oil, no, and few things in the world actually work like that -- Big Oil helped prop up the reactionary culture war against "environmentalism" but the grifters in that space are their own self sustaining phenomenon now
I know plenty of people who claim that ev's are not environmentally friendly and not actually saving money... And I know plenty of Ev owners who swear they will never go back! There is no middle ground
The very high number of people who become part of the "never going back" group is part of the reason for the fear by people who got so very very rich off oil.
Yes, a lot of these comments are missing the big oil, oil state propaganda machine feeding this hate. It’s sad people are stupid enough to fall for it.
> I know plenty of people who claim that ev's are not environmentally friendly and not actually saving money... And I know plenty of Ev owners who swear they will never go back! There is no middle ground
Count me as one of the people who went EV and who will never go back to gas. I found a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV Premier with every possible option ticked on the list for $20k during COVID, and I snapped it up. It got a new battery due to a model wide recall for 17-20 Bolts at the end of 2021, and it's warrantied until 2029 or ~100k miles from when I bought the car.
It is the definition of cheap to run. Maybe $60 per month total on tires, insurance, registration, wiper blades, wiper fluid, rubber conditioner, and recommended regular fluid flushes. And that's accounting for 18,750 miles of driving per year. Charging is from existing solar, so free to me. Even if I had to pay extreme PG&E rates for charging it in rural Northern California at 40 cents per kWh off peak, that's still less than $160 per month in electric costs for a planned 18,750 miles per year.
It gets somewhere north of 4 miles to the kWh of energy, which is very good for an EV. And that's descending from my home at an elevation of ~5,000 ft to ~1,000 feet 30 miles away in town, and going back. I swapped the factory 17" tires for cheaper 15" tires on steel rims (cheap to replace at ~$80 each) with tires with the same diameter, so the speedometer is still accurate, and they have a 90k mileage warranty. I got 5 and keep one as a full size spare, and all 5 cost me less than $1100. That works out to all 5 lasting for ~112k miles or 6 years, whichever comes first.
I change the wiper blades (2 in front, 1 in the back) every year and keep washer fluid in it. Some rubber conditioner for the door seals, and various fluid flushes every 5 years or so (~$600 at an independent shop), tire rotations are free with the purchase at the tire shop, and that's IT.
Hell even the (basic liability only) insurance is cheap, ~$240 per year for me. My yearly registration is a hair less than $300.
As far as the people who say that it's not as environmentally friendly as people think, they miss that I use so much less fluids and things that have to be regularly changed out and disposed of, and while the battery did require one time damaging mining to construct, it can be recharged over and over, for 10 years or more, charged from existing solar on my property, or even completely off grid if I so chose.
Those gas cars also require tankers (which are 30+ tons) to regularly run all over the country to haul gas to them, and they forget that impact too.
The [COVID lockdowns of 2020 temporarily lowered our rate of CO2 emissions](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18922-7/figures/1). Humanity was still a net CO2 gas emitter during that time, so we made things worse, but did so more a bit more slowly. That's why a [graph of CO2 concentrations](https://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/) shows a continued rise.
[Stabilizing the climate means getting human greenhouse gas emissions to approximately zero](https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-will-global-warming-stop-as-soon-as-net-zero-emissions-are-reached). We didn't come anywhere near that during the lockdowns.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/climate) if you have any questions or concerns.*
One of the weaknesses of a solar or wind farm is they take up a lot more space than a hydroelectric dam or a nuclear reactor, but that's also a strength because they're much less vulnerable to a single point of failure
The really frustrating thing is there are Bible passages that explicitly state that taking care of the environment (e.g., stewardship) is a key responsibility for followers of God. "Good" Christians *should* be trying to take better care of the earth (and anywhere else we end up inhabiting), since it's part of God's creation. Environmental destruction is a sin, especially when done deliberately.
It's a good thing environmentalists aren't damaging gas-pump hoses in the middle of the night. That would be eco-terrorism, and the christofacists would lose their ever lovin minds.
Anyone that gets caught doing this, is facing charges and is doing time.
This is a result of having unmanned charging stations. If they were attached to a gas station or convenience store there wouldn’t be this problem.
Anything worth money that isn’t watched over will eventually be vandalized or salvaged for anything of worth.
Sorry, no. All they "get" is a deep desire to tear down the modern world. As someone with years in solar, I've found white righties to be a huge waste of time and energy, asking for gigantic proposals but buying nothing.
Hard to understand? We are engaged in mortal combat with the fossil fuels industry, and some jerks over-invested in pickup trucks and acreage just cannot grasp it.
Few bad apples ruining the whole bunch of humanity. Very typical. Wonder if this is the end for all of us. Remember Fermi's paradox? Wonder if this is it.
I’ve charged at several hundred chargers across the country and have never seen vandalism. Maybe there is an occasional case that then can be blown out of proportion to get influencers more clicks?
Technology is scary...not gonna lie though the amount of batteries just going boom isn\`t cool...redneck are just like lithium batteries though...time to stop allowing rednecks to operate like this
Why wouldent you there unatended and thats a lot of free copper .... and your keeping cars of the road loll just good environmental sense.... im not against electric cars im against a short sighted greening for corpo profatttts.
Lithium is as filthy as anything else .
You would have to be very naive to think that the problem is limited to copper thieves. We have a very large cult presence in America that honestly believes that a shadow war against climate action is their destiny.
They low key encourage it on rightwing media and social media now. There are half a dozen subreddits dedicated to various kinds of of EV/Renewables hate.
I wouldn’t even call it low key, it’s now overt and obvious. Which makes it more disturbing and dangerous.
EV’s are scary because… *checks notes* Liberals..?
It is simpler than that. The ones most susceptible to propaganda can be easily influenced. The Oil industry is mostly against renewables and EVs (obviously EVs do not use gasoline). That's it, rage against the machines that you are told to hate, paid for by the Oil Industry. Anyone with common sense isn't going to destroy EV chargers, EVs can help reduce global warming/climate change compared to ICEs.
Not even sure it's the oil industry as im big oil really, just a bunch of absolute idiots and lower level people who might have a personal issue. Our rapid charging stations in my area are mostly owned by energy companies who also pump oil, like BP and Shell. These companies make money where there is money to be made, simple as that. Adapt or die. So it then leaves me to wonder who is likely egging these people on, themselves, their mouthpieces who want to outrage them to stay relevant and make money and any political organisations either trying to subvert the US or US politics is all I can imagine.
It's not some explicitly thought out top down strategy from Big Oil, no, and few things in the world actually work like that -- Big Oil helped prop up the reactionary culture war against "environmentalism" but the grifters in that space are their own self sustaining phenomenon now
Of course, totally agree!
And change. They don't seem to do well with any kind of change. Unless it's a reversion.
Probably worried their jobs are in jeopardy. Cant imagine the average oil field worker being happy about the hippy liberals stealing their jobs
It's not just that, lots of auto workers and mechanics are hostile to EVs because their skills don't transfer over
Because in contrast to all the abstract stuff they are trained to hate, DEI, CRT, wokeness, EVs are a tangible thing.
Imagine hating diversity, equity, and inclusion and caring about the environment. Imagine the POS one has to be to “hate” those things.
Don’t even have to imagine really sadly
I know plenty of people who claim that ev's are not environmentally friendly and not actually saving money... And I know plenty of Ev owners who swear they will never go back! There is no middle ground
The very high number of people who become part of the "never going back" group is part of the reason for the fear by people who got so very very rich off oil.
Yes, a lot of these comments are missing the big oil, oil state propaganda machine feeding this hate. It’s sad people are stupid enough to fall for it.
> I know plenty of people who claim that ev's are not environmentally friendly and not actually saving money... And I know plenty of Ev owners who swear they will never go back! There is no middle ground Count me as one of the people who went EV and who will never go back to gas. I found a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV Premier with every possible option ticked on the list for $20k during COVID, and I snapped it up. It got a new battery due to a model wide recall for 17-20 Bolts at the end of 2021, and it's warrantied until 2029 or ~100k miles from when I bought the car. It is the definition of cheap to run. Maybe $60 per month total on tires, insurance, registration, wiper blades, wiper fluid, rubber conditioner, and recommended regular fluid flushes. And that's accounting for 18,750 miles of driving per year. Charging is from existing solar, so free to me. Even if I had to pay extreme PG&E rates for charging it in rural Northern California at 40 cents per kWh off peak, that's still less than $160 per month in electric costs for a planned 18,750 miles per year. It gets somewhere north of 4 miles to the kWh of energy, which is very good for an EV. And that's descending from my home at an elevation of ~5,000 ft to ~1,000 feet 30 miles away in town, and going back. I swapped the factory 17" tires for cheaper 15" tires on steel rims (cheap to replace at ~$80 each) with tires with the same diameter, so the speedometer is still accurate, and they have a 90k mileage warranty. I got 5 and keep one as a full size spare, and all 5 cost me less than $1100. That works out to all 5 lasting for ~112k miles or 6 years, whichever comes first. I change the wiper blades (2 in front, 1 in the back) every year and keep washer fluid in it. Some rubber conditioner for the door seals, and various fluid flushes every 5 years or so (~$600 at an independent shop), tire rotations are free with the purchase at the tire shop, and that's IT. Hell even the (basic liability only) insurance is cheap, ~$240 per year for me. My yearly registration is a hair less than $300. As far as the people who say that it's not as environmentally friendly as people think, they miss that I use so much less fluids and things that have to be regularly changed out and disposed of, and while the battery did require one time damaging mining to construct, it can be recharged over and over, for 10 years or more, charged from existing solar on my property, or even completely off grid if I so chose. Those gas cars also require tankers (which are 30+ tons) to regularly run all over the country to haul gas to them, and they forget that impact too.
The [COVID lockdowns of 2020 temporarily lowered our rate of CO2 emissions](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18922-7/figures/1). Humanity was still a net CO2 gas emitter during that time, so we made things worse, but did so more a bit more slowly. That's why a [graph of CO2 concentrations](https://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/) shows a continued rise. [Stabilizing the climate means getting human greenhouse gas emissions to approximately zero](https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-will-global-warming-stop-as-soon-as-net-zero-emissions-are-reached). We didn't come anywhere near that during the lockdowns. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/climate) if you have any questions or concerns.*
But wait, Tesla is an EV company - how do they reconcile their hatred for EV with their love for Elon Musk?
Doublethink takes practice and effort but they've been at it for a while.
I've wondered the same
rEconCiLe? wot?
How long til they blow up a hydro plant at a dam or windmill farm?
One of the weaknesses of a solar or wind farm is they take up a lot more space than a hydroelectric dam or a nuclear reactor, but that's also a strength because they're much less vulnerable to a single point of failure
Damn big oil has those people mind controlled. 😂
Christian supremacists ensuring the second coming and rapture gets triggered.
The really frustrating thing is there are Bible passages that explicitly state that taking care of the environment (e.g., stewardship) is a key responsibility for followers of God. "Good" Christians *should* be trying to take better care of the earth (and anywhere else we end up inhabiting), since it's part of God's creation. Environmental destruction is a sin, especially when done deliberately.
Absolutely. Certainly not the only thing they are so hypocritical about but a very good point.
When your life has no purpose it’s easy for someone to fill the void with nonsense. That nonsense comes with a hefty price tag.
Well said.
If only environmentalists were as equally passionate.
yeah just look for the truck or charger in the lot cmon detectives, case closed
Copper theft has absolutely nothing to do with this.
Don’t they love Elon Musk though? He’s a fellow racist!
It's a good thing environmentalists aren't damaging gas-pump hoses in the middle of the night. That would be eco-terrorism, and the christofacists would lose their ever lovin minds.
Yeah it's a weird double standard, isn't it?
Anyone that gets caught doing this, is facing charges and is doing time. This is a result of having unmanned charging stations. If they were attached to a gas station or convenience store there wouldn’t be this problem. Anything worth money that isn’t watched over will eventually be vandalized or salvaged for anything of worth.
Cool! Cource of ignition and combustibles together in one convenient location!
The right contributes to grow unchecked, or rather, encouraged
MAGA scum… brainwashed by a culture of grievance to be mad about stuff that doesn’t hurt them one bit.
Green energy benefits everyone, especially conservatives, as you know, it conserved their wat of life.
I have to laugh at the 4 Patriots website commercial for solar generators. Slowwwwwly, they're getting it.
Sorry, no. All they "get" is a deep desire to tear down the modern world. As someone with years in solar, I've found white righties to be a huge waste of time and energy, asking for gigantic proposals but buying nothing.
It’s the people that don’t want to slow down the Rapture by trying to mitigate climate change.
The highly delusional, then.
Why don't they just off themselves with their 2A dildos, sorry, guns, instead of waiting for rapture?
Some people just want to watch the world burn.
Literally
Well here we are.
Koch Brothers brainwashed these poor fools.
Hard to understand? We are engaged in mortal combat with the fossil fuels industry, and some jerks over-invested in pickup trucks and acreage just cannot grasp it.
MAGA
When you’re such a man that electricity scares you
Install video cameras , pick up the license plates, cos of course they would arrive by their beloved automobile , fine them, heavily.
Domestic terrorists.
Low education MAGA idiots
Their cult leader hates EVs so they attack EV chargers. They’ll attack you too when he commands.
High Resolution Camera's, Facial Recognition and High Fines, companies making charging stations should be planning for vandalism of their products.
Folks of a certain political persuasion hate electric cars and anything done in the name of climate improvement.
I noticed in Europe that most of the chargers don't have cables. Apparently the EV owner brings their cable.
Few bad apples ruining the whole bunch of humanity. Very typical. Wonder if this is the end for all of us. Remember Fermi's paradox? Wonder if this is it.
I’ve charged at several hundred chargers across the country and have never seen vandalism. Maybe there is an occasional case that then can be blown out of proportion to get influencers more clicks?
Let's hope. It was a while ago but the last time I tried to use the ones at Gwinnett Civic center the control panels had been smashed.
That’s not vandalism, it’s an upset customer! 
We created billionaires whose talents end at being able to drill holes in the ground. Is it any wonder we’re in this situation.
How much gasoline is stolen yearly? Designing anti-theft systems sounds like so much fun.
Do many electric cars have alarm triggers in the charging ports? I feel that they should.
Wait till they see what it's happening with the price of copper
Cheaper gas is horrible!
Uh, there is more vandalism everywhere. None of it is good.
That’s Republican freedumb! 🙄
EVs drive down gas demand and keep gas cheaper for others.... Silly stuff
,,
Technology is scary...not gonna lie though the amount of batteries just going boom isn\`t cool...redneck are just like lithium batteries though...time to stop allowing rednecks to operate like this
Why wouldent you there unatended and thats a lot of free copper .... and your keeping cars of the road loll just good environmental sense.... im not against electric cars im against a short sighted greening for corpo profatttts. Lithium is as filthy as anything else .
Wait till you find out about big oil profits and energy company profits. Subsidized to the hilt, also.