The people of Crested Butte want their local government to be a leader in climate resilience. But some residents were not happy with the purchase of a new electric vehicle for the local police.
Chief Marshal Mike Reilly of the Crested Butte Marshal’s office understands the limitations of social media.
“Social media…I try not to argue with my dog or the internet”
But for this small-town police chief, there is no public relations team, so posting updates to Facebook is a regular part of the job. Like on August 12 last year, when he posted a photo of the department's newest vehicle.
As far as we know,” Reilly proudly wrote, This is the first Tesla Model X in service.
Not everyone on Facebook that day, was impressed…
TIME OUT! wrote one person. You idiots spent money on a Tesla?
How much did that set me back in my property taxes??? Asked another.
Others made fun of the futuristic falcon doors that open vertically instead of outward. Still more questioned the practicality of a police cruiser with limited battery life.
There were some that supported the purchase, but the overall attitude was that a Tesla Model X, was unreasonable.
“…because that's just something that wealthy people in San Francisco do. And that's completely out of touch with reality.”
That’s Cartie Werthman. She co-authored a study that looked at the impact public relations firms had on climate change politics.
The study found that industries like electric utilities, oil, coal, steel, and rail, pay millions for public relations, while environmental advocates and renewable energy pay comparatively very little for PR.
She’s heard those arguments before, in messaging paid for by the oil and gas industry.
“so especially the American Petroleum Institute has hired PR firms out the wazoo.”. ….And we've seen that with pretty much every climate, anything that would reduce our emissions in the United States. Like any sort of policy, they're usually fighting against that.”
For example, as part of their settlement over the diesel emission scandal, Volkswagon two billion dollars to fund electric vehicle infrastructure plans across the country, including two public charging stations in Crested Butte.
“…And at every turn API and APFM, American Fuel and Petroleum Manufacturers.has come in and lobbied against them. And they've made oftentimes the same arguments that you'd see on this local level of, oh, it's just rich people trying to buy these nice, fancy Tesla's”
Thinking back to the public reaction in Crested Butte. There is no actual evidence that oila dn gas pr firms had a hand in stirring the debate. These people had their own agendas, like the local housing crisis - officially declared by the Town Council only a few weeks before the arrival of the new car. Workers were fleeing the county for a place to live, or opted for the woods. Businesses cut back or closed all together.
It was also the summer after the murder of George Floyd, and the worldwide conversations on police reform. Phrases like “defund the police” had fully entered the American lexicon, the Crested Butte Marshals had even recently changed their uniforms from black to blue as part of that movement…
These were the issues that people were talking about that day… But both of those narratives DEPEND on the narrative of a Tesla as a decidedly impractical and elitist vehicle, something the company’s real public image, and that of its celebrity billionair founder Elon Musk, maybe doesn’t help. But the narrative has been around far longer than Musk’s celebrity or his car.
(TESLA BUZZ)
That’s the sound of the Tesla Model X backing out of the garage of Marshal Joseph Dukeman. It’s not hard to get him talking about his new cruiser…
I think as far as the town goes, I think it's I think it's a good transition where maybe I was skeptical at first, since driving them and how efficient this thing gets 375 miles, you know, I think that that's what people were, we're kind of concerned about, is it going to last that long? How well is it going to be in the snow ... is that you know, the you don't have to put any service in. I mean, this thing is seeing some service just because you know, cars have things that go wrong with them over time. Yeah. But, but you know, you don't have to have the oil changes. You don't have to have any of those types of services done that we see the other cars having to go through, you know, several times throughout the year.
It’s actually the third electric vehicle in the Marshals own. They also have two electric motorcycles, and there’s a new Tesla on order - that’s how much they like it. Chief Reilly says that like with most departments, he wanted to be sure that his marshals drove American-made cars, a notion that certainly counteracts some of the arguments about Tesla’s being out of touch with the American public.
As the department adds new Teslas to their fleet, Chief Marshal Mike Reilly will likely remain the department de facto PR team, if the social media backlash returns, he’ll probably do what he did last time.
Time will tell if that’s enough to help change a very old, very powerful, very expensive narrative.
This story is part of a collaboration between stations of the Rocky Mountain Community Radio coalition. Reports will highlight the transition from fossil fuels across the Mountain West. Listen throughoutthe winter and spring of 2022 for more stories from our partner stations, including KSUT.
