The climate ads Virginia voters are seeing ahead of November 2021
Local climate and environmental groups coordinating on Facebook ads supporting Democratic incumbents
Last year, the Democratic governing trifecta in Virginia passed, among other things, the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), putting the Commonwealth on the path to zero carbon emissions by 2050. Now, some outside groups are touting the progress on climate action in an effort to keep the state’s government in Democratic hands.
Overall, climate and clean energy groups local to Virginia spent $162,407 in the past 90 days targeting the Commonwealth. Among all climate groups and polluters, here’s how much the top spenders have invested in targeting Virginia:
Easily the biggest spenders focused on influencing Virginians’ opinions about energy production have been Clean Virginia and Power for Tomorrow, the former of which invested heavily in Facebook ads backing Jennifer Caroll Foy for governor and Jay Jones for attorney while opposing Hala Alaya for lieutenant governor in the Democratic primaries. They also spent $4,088 on Snapchat ads supporting Caroll Foy and Jones. Dominion Energy was a key element in all of their ads, but ultimately Caroll Foy and Jones lost while Alaya clinched the Democratic nomination in her race last month.
Power for Tomorrow, on the other hand, ran a Facebook ad campaign in the final weeks of the Democratic primary that directly opposed Clean Virginia’s influence. They called Clean Virginia a “special interest group” that was “spending millions to remove consumer protections against skyrocketing utility bills and blackouts.”
As for Dominion itself, they have yet to use Facebook ads to support any particular candidate or policy. Instead, they’ve been running greenwashing ads that tout “Virginia’s clean energy future” and how they’re “working together” with a bus manufacturer “to put electric school buses on the road.”
Only three climate groups are currently targeting Virginia with a focus on the upcoming statewide and local elections: Virginia League of Conservation Voters, Chesapeake Climate Action Network Action Fund, and Advanced Energy Works, the latter being a project of Advanced Energy Economy. While each group is supporting different sets of state delegates, all of them are using the recently passed VCEA and stronger vehicle emission standards to promote their chosen incumbents. The three groups have so far spent $23,506 targeting Virginia in the past 90 days, and they mostly target Virginians (presumably in the specific state House districts) aged 25 - 54.
The three groups are almost certainly coordinating on their Facebook ads, judging by the fact that the Virginia LCV and CCAN Action Fund are running ads with identical copy and near-identical creative. Their copy reads:
Thanks to Del. Schuyler VanValkenburg, Virginia is leading the way towards a clean energy economy. He voted for bold climate legislation like the Virginia Clean Economy Act and Clean Car Standards, which will protect clean air and expand clean energy – action that’s good for our health, our environment and our economy.
Advanced Energy Works’ ads are only slightly different, in that they argue in their ad copy that the two new laws “will help Virginia families save money, cut pollution, and create sustainable 21st century jobs.” They do use their own creative, however.
Most of the national climate and polluter pages that have been targeting Virginia, on the other hand, are not targeting the Commonwealth with the upcoming elections in mind. Most nationwide campaigns target states proportionally with population, and as the 12th most populous state, Virginia gets targeted with its fair share of national Facebook ad campaigns that aren’t state-specific with their ads.
There are a couple of exceptions in this regard: the League of Conservation Voters has been targeting Reps. Elaine Luria and Abigail Spanberger since July 10th pushing for clean energy provisions in the American Jobs Plan. Similarly, the Green New Deal Network targeted Rep. Bobby Scott earlier this month, pushing. him to “deliver $600 billion for green public schools and housing.”