Big Oil pounces on digital war profiteering
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, GOP politicians and fossil fuel groups follow API guidance to call for more domestic fossil fuel extraction
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!
What we found:
Overall, spending by both climate groups and fossil fuel advocates on Meta political ads continues to decline.
At least nine GOP politicians and three pro-fossil fuel groups have already started running digital ads advocating for increased domestic fossil fuel production within the first week of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, we’ve identified only two climate or clean energy groups that are already up with digital ads related to the war: Sierra Club and Action for the Climate Emergency.
Right-wing online pundits and politicians have similarly latched onto the war in Ukraine, with John Kerry and the Biden administration’s economic and energy policies as common targets, according to analysis from Triplecheck.
National Digital Ad Spending on Climate
First, here are the top 25 spenders nationwide on climate and energy-related ads on Meta platforms from last week: First, here are the top 25 spenders nationwide on climate and energy-related ads on Meta platforms from last week:
Spending on Meta political ads by climate, clean energy, and conservation groups, as well as by fossil fuel groups, declined almost universally from the previous week to last week, continuing a downward trend since early February. Many climate groups in particular, such as the League of Conservation Voters, the NRDC Action Fund, EDF Action, and Climate Power have altogether stopped their ongoing campaigns on the platforms - although the latter group has gone up on TV with a solid new clean energy ad.
Some climate groups may have down their ads to recalibrate in light of the Russian war in Ukraine, which is undoubtedly connected to the world’s and particularly the West’s continued reliance on Russian oil and natural gas. For now, though, we can see which groups have quickly responded to the crisis with fresh digital ads, but on the climate advocacy side, there don’t seem to be many up yet. So far, the only Meta ads from climate groups we found that connected the new war to fossil fuels have come from Sierra Club, which is running one ad on a very small budget, and Action for the Climate Emergency, which had actually been running anti-war ads since late January.
Fossil fuel groups and GOP politicians seem to have been much quicker on the uptake, possibly due to messaging guidance from the American Petroleum Institute - we recommend checking out Popular Information’s rundown of Big Oil’s eager war profiteering if you haven’t already. Although API hasn’t yet launched any digital ad campaigns pushing its own messaging about Unleashing American Energy since Russia’s invasion, we’ve identified at least nine Republicans running for or in federal office who have, including Sen. Todd Young, Reps. Jake LaTurner, Andrew Clyde, and Scott Perry, as well as U.S. Senate candidates Dave Schatz of Missouri and Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania. We also found similar Facebook ads from Republican congressional candidates, including Kalena Bruce in MO-04 and Byron Gatewood in GA-06, as well as Texas Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick. All of these politicians are latching onto the argument that Russia was emboldened to invade Ukraine because President Joe Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline or otherwise restrained America’s fossil fuel production (even though the Biden administration has issued plenty of fossil fuel extraction permits).
We also identified at least two groups - Power the Future Inc. and the American Exploration & Production Council - that have also been running ads along those lines. Together, these two groups have spent around $2k so far on ads targeting the DMV that advocate for increasing liquid natural gas exports to Europe and otherwise accelerating domestic fossil fuel production.
Overall, here’s a look at how weekly spending on Meta political ads by climate groups and polluters compare week-over-week so far this year:
Google + YouTube
While we did not identify any new or ongoing Google or YouTube ad campaigns from climate groups in the latest Google Transparency Report, we did find new spending from Clearpath Action Fund, which spent $2,600 on ads last week supporting Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Dan Newhouse. The ads supporting Murkowski appear to be taking a more subtle approach to the war and fossil fuels, as they feature an Alaskan Air Force base and started running the day Russia invaded Ukraine.
Snapchat
The Oregon climate action group Renew Oregon launched a Snapchat ad campaign last week building support for a Climate Resiliency Budget targeting adults in the state, leading to this landing page. The campaign is specifically targeted at adults in the Advocates & Activists, Collegiates, Green Living Enthusiasts, Outdoor & Nature Enthusiasts, and Philanthropists interest groups, and will run until March 8th.
Overall, here are the top spenders on Snapchat ads related to climate change, clean energy, and conservation so far this year:
Climate, clean energy, and conservation ads in this year’s key states
Out of the biggest races in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, we picked up a couple of new and ongoing Facebook ad campaigns from top candidates:
FL-GOV: Charlie Crist has started running a boosted news ad through his Spanish-language page highlighting his support for rooftop solar: "Charlie Crist continuó haciendo una parada en el sur de Miami el miércoles apoyado por el ex alcalde de South Miami Phillip Stoddard y defensores locales de la energía solar para revelar un plan de campaña para un millón de techos solares en toda Florida."
PA-SEN: Dave McCormick is using Facebook ads to promote his recent op-ed in Fox Business: “Joe Biden’s policies are an unmitigated disaster for the United States and our allies, and his failure to promote American energy dominance that would enhance global security is one of the main reasons why.”
Reaching Frontline Communities
Late last month, a relatively new environmental non-profit Clean Water Alabama, headed by Alabama Republican State Rep. Joe Faust, ran its first pair of Facebook ads, mostly targeting Alabama residents but also targeting some Floridians (presumably in the panhandle area). The first ad simply introduces the non-profit’s goals, while the second boosts a local news story explaining the pollution risks of poorly maintained stormwater runoff. Overall, Clean Water Alabama appears to have spent under $200 on these ads.
Tracking Climate Disinfo Online
Triplecheck’s tracking identified approximately 730 tweets with more than 10 retweets and 270 Facebook posts with more than 10 engagements that contained misinformation or toxic narratives related to the environment from February 23, 2022, through March 01, 2022. More than 10 million people were exposed to this content on Twitter during the time period reviewed, an increase from last week's exposure levels. The content had over 220,000 engagements on Facebook, an increase from last week's exposure levels.
Approximately 90 percent of the people exposed to misinformation or toxic narratives related to the environment on Twitter were exposed to one of the following themes:
Kerry’s statements on the impact that the crisis in Ukraine could have on the fight to slow climate change; and
Democrats support reductions in US fossil fuel production, increasing oil and gas prices and making us weaker internationally
These narratives were also the focus of approximately 100 percent of the Facebook engagements identified in our tracking. You can find Triplecheck’s full report here.
Measuring the National Organic Conversation
Overall, the top three Facebook posts mentioning climate change and related terms last week came from Michelle Obama (125.3k interactions), Ben Shapiro (107.3k interactions), and Dan Bongino (78.1k interactions).
Russia’s war on Ukraine inherently involves the petrostate’s massive oil and natural gas exports to Europe and the U.S., so how we source our energy is a major element of social media content surrounding our response to the war. Since Russia began its invasion last Thursday, the top three Facebook posts mentioning both Russia and energy, gas, oil, or climate change have come from Barack Obama and historian-influencer Heather Cox Richardson; Richardson’s posts, as usual, provide factual analysis, but Obama made a more explicit appeal regarding the energy sector:
[E]very American, regardless of party, should support President Biden’s efforts, in coordination with our closest allies, to impose hard-hitting sanctions on Russia – sanctions that impose a real price on Russia’s autocratic elites. There may be some economic consequences to such sanctions, given Russia’s significant role in world energy markets. But that’s a price we should be willing to pay to take a stand on the side of freedom.
While Obama and Richardson enjoy the followings of very engaged liberals on Facebook, we found that most highly engaged content surrounding Russia and energy came from conservative and Republican pages, almost all pushing the same argument: to counter Russia, pump more oil at home. A post from Young America’s Foundation arguing that “Russia is weak when America's energy industry is strong,” got 63k interactions. Dan Crenshaw bemoaned the death of the Keystone XL pipeline and got 52.4k interactions. Carla Sands, a GOP Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, said that “We have abundant oil and gas here at home, let’s use it,” and got 34.8k interactions. We also found posts from Lauren Boebert, Tucker Carlson, Kevin McCarthy, Rick Perry, and Fox News echoing this sentiment.
We did find a couple of posts from liberal pages Occupy Democrats and CALL TO ACTIVISM. Occupy’s post quotes West Virginia Democrat Richard Ojeda, saying that “You can blame the gas prices on Russia. Not Biden,” and the latter page’s post posits that “Ukrainians are valiantly fighting for their country while the GOP complains about gas prices. Raise your hand if you’d happily pay slightly more in gas if it meant PUNISHING Russia!” However, we suspect that the GOP’s and pro-oil content is getting far more reach, as neither of these liberal posts got more than 30k interactions.
Over on Instagram, the top three posts mentioning climate change and related terms came from Instagram, Donald Trump Jr., and theshaderoom. Like on Facebook, we found that much of the high-performing content involving both Russia’s war and energy came from right-wing pages that are gleefully pushing for more domestic fossil fuel production and militarization. Dan Crenshaw appears to be a particularly influential voice in this regard, as four of the top 20 posts mentioning both Russia and oil came from the Texas Republican, getting a cumulative 524.2k interactions. Also among the influential voices among the right on Instagram are Rogan O’Handley (aka @dc_draino) who’s trying to smear the Zelensky government by tying it to Deep State conspiracy theories, Ben Shapiro, an account called ew.democrats, and Breitbart, which is ridiculing John Kerry for his continued focus on climate action.
That’s it for Climate Monitor this week. As always, head to climatemonitor.substack.com to see these updates in real-time as we publish them throughout the week!
And if you have any comments or questions, feel free to drop us a line by shooting an email to nick@fwiwmedia.com.