Inside the online gas stove wars
Here’s your roundup of the climate conversation across social media this week
Welcome to Climate Monitor, a weekly report on the digital strategies polluters and pro-Climate groups are using to shift public opinion and move legislation. We’ve examined political ad spending on social media platforms, as well as what’s trending on social media. Here’s what we found:
Toplines:
Right-wing pundits and personalities became staunch defenders of gas stoves last week on Facebook, as the debate over whether or not to ban the appliances spun completely out of control
Climate Action Campaign and Earthjustice launched several new Facebook and Instagram ads urging the Biden administration to do more when it comes to the regulation of carbon, smog, industrial soot, and other pollutants
Tiktokers clashed over gas stoves too, with a conservative “come and take it” style video receiving over 1.8 million views, and other posters explaining how gas is bad for public health.
Digital Advertising Roundup
Facebook + Instagram advertising
For starters, here were the top 20 climate and energy-related advertisers on Facebook and Instagram last week:
There were several new & notable campaigns on Facebook and Instagram last week. The Climate Action Campaign launched two new ads urging the Biden administration to “use all its powers to set strong new limits” on carbon, smog, etc. Similarly, EarthJustice launched some new Instagram-specific ads highlighting frontline impacted communities and also calling for more Biden administration action - specifically on soot pollution.
Meanwhile, in Michigan, utility giant Consumers Energy launched a new campaign touting its commitment to be “carbon neutral” by 2040.
Obviously, the biggest climate-related issue to take over the internet last week was the debate over banning gas stoves. Despite the right-wing outrage machine kicking into full gear, the issue was mostly constrained to organic sharing on social media, as only a smattering of digital ads has mentioned the topic in recent weeks. We did see the Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma ran a few ads last week, and in December, Climate Solutions launched a whole campaign highlighting the negative health effects of cooking with gas.
Google & YouTube Advertising
There were no new Google ad campaigns related to climate and energy issues last week that were archived according to the company’s political ad policies.
Snapchat Advertising
Snapchat has not yet published a new archive of 2023 ad spending on its platform. To view past year’s archives, you can click here>>
What’s Trending on Social Media
How are climate and energy issues being discussed by Americans on social media? Here were the top-performing public posts (by # of interactions) related to climate and energy on Facebook last week:
Nine out of the top ten Facebook posts last week about climate and energy issues came from conservative or anti-Climate pages, and all of them were about gas stoves.
Week after week, we’ve noticed Texas Ag Commissioner Sid Miller has become a major pusher of anti-climate, anti-environmental messaging on Facebook. Armed with nearly 1 million page followers, his posts about everything from oil drilling to electric vehicles regularly receive tens of thousands of interactions on the site. Last week, he had the most engaged post about gas stoves, receiving over 115,000 likes, comments, and shares.
A more familiar right-wing voice fighting in the Gas Stove Wars has been Glenn Beck, who shared several video posts railing against President Biden and “global elites” for their supposed eagerness to ban the appliances.
The only top-performing post pushing back on the conservative gas stove nonsense came from liberal mega-page Occupy Democrats, which re-posted Rep. AOC’s clap back at Ronny Jackson.
Meanwhile, on Instagram, here were the top-performing feed posts (excluding Reels & stories) related to climate and energy last week:
On Instagram, the picture was slightly less bleak. The most engaged public feed post on that platform came from the company itself (@Instagram), which featured activist Charitie Ropati sharing her story + thoughts on climate justice. It received over 570,000 likes and comments. Other top posts came from National Geographic and Leonardo DiCaprio, which highlighted some of the tangible impacts of climate change:
Several right-wing gas stove posts did take off on Instagram, however - including from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, FOX News, Breitbart, and popular meme account Middle Class Fancy:
…and finally, the battle over gas stoves played out on TikTok as well last week. This video from conservative user @browneyedgirl_x2 received over 1.8 million views, while pro-climate posters attempted to explain why gas stoves are bad for your health:
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All of these posts and discussions weren’t just relegated to fringe or hyper-partisan communities online - Google Search results for “gas stoves” spiked last week, as concerned Americans wanted to know what all the buzz was about.
According to Google Trends, the states where Americans were most actively searching for “gas stove” related searches (relative to other states) on Google were: Maine, New Hampshire, West Virginia, New Mexico, and Idaho.
Weekly Reading
This is all the gas industry’s fault (Heated 1/13)
The New Soldiers in Propane’s Fight Against Climate Action: Television Stars (NYT, 1/11)
How dark money groups led Ohio to redefine gas as ‘green energy’ (Washington Post, 1/17)
Biden Administration Moves to Tighten Limits on Deadly Air Pollution (NYT, 1/6)
That’s it for this week! If you enjoyed reading this week’s issue, feel free to forward it to a friend or colleague.
Climate Monitor is a product of the Digital Climate Coalition + FWIW Media. Written by Kyle Tharp. Tips/comments/questions? Email kyle@fwiwmedia.com