Climate bill surprise sparks digital ad war in key states
Nearly a dozen groups have launched energy-related Inflation Reduction Act digital ads
Welcome to Climate Monitor, a weekly digest of the digital tactics and strategies that polluters and climate-action groups are using 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 what’s trending on social media. Tell your colleagues to subscribe here!
TL;DR:
Following a surprise announcement of a landmark climate bill from Sens. Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin last Wednesday, we’ve identified at least 10 advertisers that have launched pro- or anti-clean energy digital ads.
Climate groups supporting the bill with digital ads include Climate Power, Eartjustice, Environmental Defense Fund, EDF Action, BlueGreen Alliance, Action for the Climate Emergency, and Clean Energy Business Network.
Polluters and climate deniers running ads against the bill include Americans for Prosperity, the National Association of Manufacturers, and United for Clean Power.
United for Clean Power is the name of an obscure group targeting progressive members of the House - read more about their shady campaign in our flagship newsletter, FWIW.
Democratic and progressive pages on Facebook supporting the Inflation Reduction Act far outperformed climate skeptic pages. Meanwhile, outrage from Dan Bongino, Dan Crenshaw, and the_typical_liberal had a much greater reach on Instagram.
National Digital Ad Spending on Climate
Meta (Facebook + Instagram)
First, here are the top 25 spenders nationwide on climate and energy-related ads on Meta platforms from last week:
When Sens. Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin announced a surprise landmark deal to lower prescription drug costs, tax the wealthy, and fight climate change, outside groups scrambled to get digital ads up to build either public support or opposition to the bill. Now that nearly a week has passed since the announcement, we have a clear idea of who’s investing in these ads.
Among climate groups, the biggest spender on Meta ads pushing for the Inflation Reduction Act is so far Climate Power, which has spent nearly $15k on ads targeting key Democratic senators in AZ, CO, GA, NV, NJ, and WV. Also targeting these senators, particularly Sens. Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, are EDF Action, BlueGreen Alliance, which is running its first campaign since 2021 to target Manchin, and Action for the Climate Emergency, which is focusing its entire campaign on bringing Sinema to Yes. Most of these ads focus on how the bill will lower energy costs, while others lean on the plain fact that it is a climate bill that can pass.
All told, we estimate that climate groups have spent around $18.7k on pro-IRA Facebook and Instagram ads since it was announced last week. Additional advertisers include Earthjustice, Environmental Defense Fund, and Clean Energy Business Network.
On the other hand, opponents of climate action seem perfectly willing to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars on Meta ads to stop the new climate bill. Largest among these is the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, which has already spent close to ***$100,000*** on Meta ads just since the start of this week. They’re arguing that the bill would “slap a $739 BILLION tax on America,” and in ads targeting Sens. Sinema, Manchin, Maggie Hassan, and Raphael Warnock, that it would “make American energy more expensive.” The National Association of Manufacturers has spent around $35k on similar Meta ads targeting similar states, urging Congress to “say no to taxes that would devastate manufacturers and do nothing to reduce energy costs.”
But perhaps the most bizarre digital campaign we’ve found supporting or opposing the IRA comes from United for Clean Power, a dark money group with past ties to at least two GOP organizations. They’re running Meta ads, YouTube ads, ads in POLITICO, and mass text campaigns trying to get progressives to oppose the bill for not going far enough on climate, using generic language about environmental justice and climate action. Check out our full report on this shady campaign in FWIW >>> Is it a Republican front group? An industry association? We have yet to nail down the individuals, donors, or organization behind the group, but stay tuned - we’re working on it.
Google + YouTube
Last week, American Action Network launched new YouTube ads targeting vulnerable House Democrats in IN, IA, NH, OH, PA, TX, and VA, pushing them to “unleash American energy; lower prices.” They also blame President Biden for high gas prices, citing his campaign pledges to end American reliance on fossil fuels.
One new YouTube ad campaign that came from climate groups was from EDF Action, which is now running ads targeting both Nevada and Colorado thanking the states’ Democratic senators for supporting clean energy investments.
Overall, here’s how much these groups spent on Google political ads last week:
Snapchat
Patagonia spent $800 on Snap ads promoting a conservation benefit raffle in western Colorado and raising awareness about Mount Shasta in northern California. Otherwise, there were no new or ongoing political ad campaigns concerning climate change or energy on Snapchat. Overall, here’s how much groups have invested in the platform so far this year:
Climate & Energy Ads in the 2022 Elections
We identified a few digital ad campaigns about energy from battleground midterm campaigns across the country.
IL-17: Republican Esther Joy King echoes Big Oil talking points in her latest ad: “Gas prices are out of control. Parents can hardly afford to take their kids to school. Businesses are struggling just to pay the gas bill each week. The United States must prioritize energy independence!”
OR-04: Alek Skarlatos makes hand-wavey claims about lowering gas prices: “If you’re like me, your budget is feeling tighter because of the rising cost to fill up your tank. Oregonians need results, not empty promises…I’m running to bring fiscal responsibility to Washington. Lower gas prices, control inflation, energy independence.”
TX-GOV: Beto O’Rourke launched some of his first digital ads discussing energy: “We’re going to expand our state's energy leadership by creating additional high-wage, high-skill energy jobs right here in the Permian Basin and throughout Texas.”
VA-02: Republican Jen Kiggans pushed a straight-to-camera video lamenting Democratic legislation: “Congress is expected to pass the “Inflation Reduction Act” which would cost taxpayers $433 billion and wouldn’t actually reduce inflation like the misleading name implies but would instead raise taxes and advance Biden’s climate initiatives….!”
Reaching Frontline Communities
Pro-clean energy advertising firm Resource Media has been running a boosted news campaign on Facebook since late April. Their ads touch on a wide variety of topics relating to climate change and clean energy, and recently some of their ads have promoted rising sea levels in Louisiana, farm working conditions, and air pollution from gas stoves.
Tracking Climate Disinfo Online
This week, Triplecheck found that more than 30 million people were exposed to climate misinformation on Twitter, a decrease of 25 percent from last week's exposure levels. The content had over 100,000 engagements on Facebook, an increase of five percent from last week's exposure levels. The content had over 4,600,000 views on Telegram, a decrease of 60 percent from last week's exposure levels.
The top narratives and themes are below. You can find Triplechecks’s full report here.
The Inflation Reduction Act is actually the Green New Deal
8,700,000 human accounts exposed on Twitter.
Over 9,800 engagements on Facebook.
Liberals don't mind the elite using private jets, but they don’t want regular people driving cars
11,000,000 human accounts exposed on Twitter.
Over 7,200 engagements on Facebook.
Electric bus catching fire shows that EVs are dangerous, not environmentally friendly
Over 43,000 engagements on Facebook.
What’s trending organically?
Last week, the most engaged Facebook posts mentioning climate change, energy, and related terms far and away came from Heather Cox Richardson, Heather Cox Richardson, and…Heather Cox Richardson! All three of her essay posts discuss the Capitol Hill drama of last week, namely the passage of CHIPS, the introduction of the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Senate GOP’s petty response to the latter in sinking the burn pits bill they previously supported.
While most of the other top-performing posts about climate change or energy last week concerned the developing energy situation in Europe, we found that otherwise Democratic pages including Barack Obama, President Joe Biden, and Jeff Merkley dominated the conversation around the IRA on Facebook. The most engaged posts from the right came from Fox News, which streamed Biden’s remarks about the bill “after US economy falls into recession”, and Dan Bongino, who furiously attacked Manchin for blessing “an economic nuclear bomb for this already struggling economy.” All told, though, Fox’s and Bongino’s posts only earned 21.3k interactions in total.
One page we did want to call attention to is Reunite World Freedom. They’re an anti-vax group that claims to be organizing a “global walk-out” to protest, as they claim in a recent Facebook post that got 130k video views, “globalist organizations [which] are to blame for the decline of our democracies, the increase in our living expenses, and climate policies that are destroying our economic strength and pushing farmers out of business.”
Overall, here’s how the most engaged content on Facebook breaks down:
On Instagram, the most engaged posts about climate or energy came from National Geographic, which celebrated Global Tiger Day. Outside of that outlier, we found that right-wing opposition to the IRA was significantly more prevalent than on Facebook, largely driven by the usual suspects: the_typical_liberal, Dan Crenshaw, and Dan Bongino. Each of them pushed the argument that the bill would, in Crenshaw’s words, “tank the economy,” even though economists believe that the bill would in fact reduce inflation. Nonetheless, their posts about the bill got 158.3k interactions and 1.24 million video views.
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.