Midwestern groups promote clean energy to elect Democrats
Plus, emerging drama between environmental groups and Gov. Gavin Newsom over Prop 30
Welcome to Climate Monitor, a weekly digest of the digital tactics and strategies polluters and climate-action groups use 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. Tell your colleagues to subscribe here!
TL;DR:
As Climate Power Action continues to run digital ads promoting the Inflation Reduction Act in key races, Somos Votantes has joined them with pro-clean energy ads in both English and Spanish.
Across the Midwest, state-based advocacy groups are using digital ads to promote clean energy and Democrats up and down the ballot, including IL CleanJobs, the Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund, and Wisconsin Conservation Voters.
While the American Chemistry Council is still running GOTV ads, ExxonMobil is up with its first digital campaign since August drawing attention to its “advanced recycling technology.”
On social media last week, President Joe Biden’s attendance at this year’s Detroit Auto Show and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard giving away his company drove the most engagement on posts about clean energy and climate change across platforms.
National Digital Ad Spending on Climate
Facebook + Instagram
First, here are the top 25 spenders nationwide on climate and energy-related ads on Meta platforms from last week:
Over the past three weeks, LCV Victory Fund and Climate Power Action have spent over $300k on Meta advertising the clean energy investments of the Inflation Reduction Act. While the former group appears to have pulled down these ads - at least for now - Climate Power Action just rolled out a new campaign about the law that promotes one of the most basic benefits of decarbonization: clean air. These new ads are supporting Democrats in AZ, CT, IL, MI, NV, NJ, OH, and WA. Also targeting several key states with pro-IRA ads, particularly Nevada, is Somos Votantes, which is running ads in both English and Spanish advertising the new law. Both of these groups’ ads primarily target Americans in key states younger than 35.
We’ve also found that some state-based groups have also started running ads touting the IRA, particularly in the Midwest. IL CleanJobs and Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund also ran Meta campaigns last week advertising the IRA and promoting Democrats in those states’ key races, including U.S. Senate candidate Tim Ryan. All told, these two groups spent over $20k on these ads last week.
The top spender on Meta ads among climate groups last week was Action for the Climate Emergency, which primarily ran email acquisition campaigns criticizing various polluting corporations and advocating for congressional and Supreme Court term limits.
Among fossil fuel groups, the top spenders on Meta ads were again the American Chemistry Council and the American Petroleum Institute. Both of these groups are still spending huge sums on the platform - last week, nearly $200k - on ads advertising plastics as key to improving car fuel efficiency, calling on the Biden administration to reopen oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and urging their followers to vote in the midterm elections.
Back on the board last week, though, was ExxonMobil, which has spent $15k on the platform over the past two weeks. They’re running email acquisition ads asking users “what matters most to you about our new advanced recycling technology,” and thanks to Meta’s recent changes to the Ad Library, we know that they’re targeting these ads at folks with environmental interests like “environmentalism” and “renewable energy”.
Google + YouTube
Over the past couple of months, a group called Clean Air California, supported by Lyft, NRDC Action Fund, California Environmental Voters, and California labor groups, has spent $98,900 on Google and YouTube ads supporting Proposition 30. The referendum would theoretically create a new tax on high-income Californians and then use that money to support zero-emission vehicle expansion and wildfire prevention. However, it looks like the proposal has some new major opposition in Gov. Gavin Newsom through a group called No on 30. The group spent $96,000 just last week on YouTube ads featuring the governor calling Prop 30 a “trojan horse” that parades itself as a climate initiative in order for Lyft to secure “corporate welfare over the fiscal welfare of our entire state.”
Also running new ads on YouTube last week is Wisconsin Conservation Voters, which spent $40,300 on the platform last week. They’re primarily using their ads to support Gov. Tony Evers by targeting young adults in Wisconsin’s cities with messaging about the governor’s “clean energy plan” and Republican Tim Michel’s connections to Donald Trump and the fossil fuel industry. Check it out:
Overall, here’s how much these groups spent on Google political ads last week:
Snapchat
Last week, Climate Power and Climate Power Action rolled out new Snap ad campaigns targeting young adults in AZ, GA, NV, and PA. The former has spent $3.6k on ads supporting Sens. Mark Kelly and Raphael Warnock, while the latter rolled out ads urging 18-to-24-year-olds to vote in the midterms because “the youth vote made climate action happen, and we’ll do it again!”
Overall, here’s how much has been spent on climate, clean energy, and conservation ads on Snap so far this year:
Climate & Energy Ads in the 2022 Elections
We identified several new digital ad campaigns about climate change and energy from battleground midterm campaigns across the country.
AK-Sen: Lisa Murkowski, who’s facing a far-right challenge in Alaska’s ranked-choice election, launched new Meta ads: “Inflation is hurting us all. That's why Lisa Murkowski is fighting to cut wasteful spending and expand American Energy to lower costs for everyone.”
CO-08: Republican Barbara Kirkmeyer launched a new ad appealing to the district’s fossil fuel workers: “CD 8 is filled with hard-working energy workers. I will be their advocate in Congress …Yadira Caraveo sponsored the most anti-energy bill in Colorado history and now she stands with Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, whose anti-oil and gas policies are punishing America’s energy workers.”
GA-02: Democrat Sanford Bishop is reaching out to young Black voters in a new ad: “We have the power to make young voters heard all across Georgia. From student loan forgiveness to health care access and climate change, it's up to us to elect leaders who care about our future.”
PA-01: Republican Brian Fitzpatrick is advertising his endorsement from the local Steamfitters union: “In Congress, you have displayed a firm commitment to guarantee our nation is fueled by homegrown energy resources that promote steady job growth for our members.”
TX-Gov: Greg Abbott launched a new ad attacking Beto O’Rourke: “[His] war on energy will destroy hundreds of thousands of Texas jobs while driving inflation and gas prices even higher! I will always protect high-paying energy jobs & the hardworking men & women of the Texas energy industry.”
Reaching Frontline Communities
Last week, Climate Reality launched a series of ads promoting an advocacy training and networking event in Houston this October. They make a call to “Gulf South and Ohio River Valley Climate Reality Leaders” to join former Vice President Al Gore for a networking and knowledge-sharing weekend event.
We’ll also note here that the Green New Deal Network has joined The Years Project in running Meta ads against “Manchin’s dirty side deal” to build the Mountain Valley Pipeline, though most other grassroots groups we discussed in last week’s Climate Monitor have pulled down their anti-MVP ads.
What’s trending organically?
Last week, the top Facebook post mentioning climate change, energy, or related terms came from President Joe Biden, who attended the Detroit Auto Show and “saw firsthand the electric vehicles that give me so many reasons to be optimistic about our future.” Other highly engaged posts came from The Royal Family, which noted Queen Elizabeth II’s long reign from “challenges of the Cold War to the threat of global warming,” and The New York Times, which exclusively interviewed Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard about his almost unprecedented decision to give away the entire company to trusts and nonprofits dedicated to fighting climate change.
The most engaged post from the right came from PragerU, which, as usual, disingenuously claimed that “A ‘zero carbon’ world by 2035 is a multi-trillion dollar pipe dream.” However, their post got just 31k interactions as it only seems to have been made available to their followers.
Overall, here’s how the most engaged content on Facebook breaks down:
On Instagram, the top post came from Good News Movement, which lauded Chouinard’s monumental philanthropic donation. Moreover, we found that the news of his divestiture of Patagonia gained far more engagement on Instagram than on Facebook: on Facebook, the top 10 posts about Patagonia earned 164k interactions, while on Instagram, the top 10 posts mentioning the company earned 1.72 million interactions.
We’ll also note that actress Jessica Marie Garcia, who is most notable for her roles in teen comedies like Disney’s Liv and Maddie and Netflix’s On My Block, appealed to her 2 million-plus followers to “#votelikeamadre” for climate action in the upcoming midterm elections. She called particular attention to the disproportionate impacts of climate change on Latino communities in the U.S.
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.