Right-wing Big Oil posts outperform clean energy content on Facebook, Instagram
Also inside: A look at new pro-Line 5 ads from Enbridge
Welcome to Climate Monitor, your weekly digest of the digital tactics and strategies that polluters and climate-action groups are deploying online to shift public opinion and move legislation. We’ve examined political ad spending on platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, and Google by several dozen groups and corporations from the past week, as well as their activities on social media. Tell your colleagues to subscribe here!
TL;DR:
Last week, climate groups spent $166k more on Meta ads than polluters, largely because the American Chemistry Council, BP, and Natural Allies for a Clean Future significantly decreased their ongoing campaigns on the platform.
Enbridge started a new Meta ad campaign touting their environmental commitments and the benefits of Line 5.
Sierra Club, Action for the Climate Emergency, and Yale Climate Communications all launched new national Meta ad campaigns last week. Additionally, The Years Project is promoting new climate activist platform ITM.earth.
Green New Deal Network and the Southern Environmental Law Center have launched new Meta ad campaigns targeting Colorado and Georgia, respectively.
Almost all of the most engaged content on Facebook and Instagram last week about climate change or energy came from right-wing pages like Fox News, Ben Shapiro, Breitbart, and Sean Hannity, blaming the Biden administration for higher gas prices.
National Digital Ad Spending on Climate
Meta
First, here are the top 25 spenders nationwide on climate and energy-related ads on Meta platforms from last week:
Last week, spending on Meta political ads by climate groups increased by 15 percent with a few groups launching new campaigns, including Sierra Club, the Green New Deal Network, the Southern Environmental Law Center, Action for the Climate Emergency, and The Years Project.
Sierra Club, which spent just over $12k on Meta political ads last week, has launched a few new campaigns: their most recent supports the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act by connecting the plastic pollution crisis to Big Oil “chasing profits,” while their other new campaigns from the past week advocate for the Endangered Species Act, the 30 by 30 movement, ending fossil fuel leasing on public lands, and urging over a dozen Democratic senators including Sens. Raphael Warnock, Catherine Cortez Masto, and Mark Kelly to “deliver on climate, care, jobs, and justice.”
Also running new digital political ads at the national level this past week was Action for the Climate Emergency, which is (targeted at young adults, as usual) promoting voter registration and their TikToks highlighting some of the more absurd aspects of the climate crisis. Additionally, Yale Climate Communications has spent around $35k so far on a climate change mythbusting campaign, primarily targeting young adults in the Sun Belt and the Midwest. And finally, we want to highlight a new effort from The Years Project: they’re targeting Americans nationwide and urging them to join a new climate activism platform called ITM.earth.
Meanwhile, The Green New Deal Network and SELC have launched new Meta ads targeting more specific parts of the country. GND Network is asking Coloradans to urge their members of Congress to “tell them that it’s time to leave greedy corporations behind and transition from oil and gas to renewable energy!” While SELC is running a campaign in Georgia collecting emails to advocate against the construction of new mines near the Okefenokee Swamp.
Spending on Meta ads by polluters, on the other hand, declined by 30 percent last week, largely due to the American Chemistry Council, BP, and Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future significantly shrinking their campaigns on the platform. One fossil fuel company that did launch new Meta ads last week was Enbridge, which is now targeting young adults in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota with the below ads touting themselves and Line 5.
Overall, here’s a look at how weekly spending on Meta political ads by climate groups and polluters compares week-over-week so far this year:
Google + YouTube
Last week Clearpath Action Fund spent another $7,300 on YouTube ads last week, in part of a new spot supporting Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Additionally, Oregon National Resources Council Action spent $300 on ads attacking independent gubernatorial candidate Betsy Johnson over campaign contributions from mining, oil, and logging companies.
Snapchat
There were no new or ongoing political campaigns relating to climate change or energy on Snapchat last week. Overall, here’s how much has been spent on the platform this year on related ads:
Climate & energy ads in the 2022 elections
Out of some of the most competitive races across the country, we picked up a few new and ongoing Facebook ad campaigns from some of the top candidates:
CO-SEN: Standing with Sen. John Hickenlooper, Michael Bennet called out Ron Hanks, his insurrectionist opponent in a new fundraising ad: “He’s also called climate change a ‘hoax’ and has tried to outlaw universal vote-by-mail in Colorado.”
GA-SEN: In the days leading up to this week’s primary election, Herschel Walker-aligned group 34N22 launched an ad attacking Sen. Raphael Warnock: “Warnock's war on American energy is costing every family and punishing working folks the most. Time for new leadership with Herschel Walker! Cast your vote today! ✅ #WarnockIsntWorking”
NV-SEN: Catherine Cortez Masto is going on offense against Adam Laxalt in a new Meta ad: “As attorney general, he defended polluters who said climate change was exaggerated. So you should know who’s paying him, because after making millions at a law firm that represented Big Oil, we can’t trust him to do what’s right.”
Reaching Frontline Communities
In light of Chevron spending thousands on digital ads targeting Ventura County, California, California Climate Voters has started a digital ad campaign of its own, albeit at a much smaller scale. We estimate that they’ve so far spent under $1k on ads like these targeting young adults in California, presumably in Ventura.
Tracking Climate Disinfo Online
Triplecheck identified approximately 300 tweets with more than 10 retweets, 85 Facebook posts with more than 10 engagements and 190 Telegram posts with more than 1000 views that contained misinformation or toxic narratives related to the environment from May 17, 2022, through May 23, 2022. More than five million people were exposed to this content on Twitter during the time period reviewed, a decrease from last week's exposure levels. The content had over 26,000 engagements on Facebook, an increase from last week's exposure levels. The content had over 2,000,000 views on Telegram, an increase from last week's exposure levels.
Approximately 85 percent of the people exposed to misinformation or toxic narratives related to the environment on Twitter were exposed to the following theme:
The Biden administration’s climate policies are largely to blame for high gas prices
3,800,000 human accounts exposed on Twitter
Over 15,000 engagements on Facebook
Minimal Telegram engagement identified.
These narratives were also the focus of approximately 75 percent of the Facebook engagements identified in our tracking. Telegram content this week focused on the explosion of a fleet of electric buses in London, which had about 70,000 total views and 1,100 forwards. You can find the full report here.
Measuring the National Organic Conversation
On Facebook last week, the top posts mentioning energy, climate change, and related terms came from Markets Insider, which reported this week that “Russia will likely be shut out permanently from global energy markets,” which generated over 110k interactions on its own. Additionally, another Insider story which reported that Russia “has tripled its current account balance in 2022 so far compared to the same period in 2021” generated at least another 74k interactions. Other than that, the most engaged posts focused on the predicted continued rise in gas prices, which pages like Fox News, Ben Shapiro, Sean Hannity were happy to pin on the Biden administration’s attempts to transition to clean energy.
Overall, here’s how the most engaged content on Facebook mentioning climate, energy, and related terms breaks down:
We found a similar trend on Instagram, where posts blaming and ridiculing Democrats and climate activists got even more engagement. In his usual fashion, right-wing pundit the_typical_liberal successfully used ad hominem attacks against abortion rights protesters and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for over two million views on just two videos. Larry Elder, Ted Cruz, and Breitbart all continued to blame Biden, Democrats, and their environmental policies for higher gas prices, while Dan Crenshaw posted an infographic showcasing all the common applications of oil, arguing that “you can never just keep it in the ground.”
Overall, here’s how the most engaged content on Instagram mentioning climate, energy, and related terms breaks down:
That’s it for Climate Monitor this week. As always, if you have any comments or questions, feel free to drop us a line by shooting an email to nick@fwiwmedia.com.