Climate advocates plan $11 million ad campaign targeting ‘key senators’

[ProSense]

Climate advocates plan $11 million ad campaign targeting ‘key senators’

By Ben Geman - 06/23/10 04:15 PM ET

Environmental groups and some liberal advocate organizations plan to announce an $11 million ad campaign Thursday to bolster support for Senate passage of climate change and energy legislation.

The League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, Service Employees International Union, and VoteVets.org, a liberal military and veterans advocacy group that supports climate legislation, back the campaign.

The groups did not provide specifics of the ad buy ahead of a Thursday rollout, but one environmentalist said TV is a key component. The groups say the campaign will target “key senators” both before and after the vote on energy and climate legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to bring a bill to the floor this summer, and is gathering the Senate Democratic caucus Thursday for a meeting to discuss the legislation.

Climate advocates are struggling to keep greenhouse gas limits in the mix as the bill takes shape.

Groups Plan Ad Campaign Targeting Senators

By Darren Goode, NationalJournal.com

<...>

While the groups will wait until next week to detail which senators will be targeted, Karpinski said the ads will reference how each senator voted recently on a resolution from Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, aimed at stopping EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.

"If you act in principle, we have your back. But if you cave... to Big Oil, we'll make sure your constituents know about it," said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune.

The ads come as Senate Democratic leaders are determining a strategy for moving climate and energy legislation as early as next month. The full Senate Democratic caucus is meeting on the matter today. President Obama is expected to sit down with a bipartisan group of senators next week as well.

While there appears to be growing momentum for liming a carbon pricing plan to electric utilities rather than including multiple sectors of the economy, Karpinski and Brune indicated their groups would not support that scaled-back effort.

more

Coming Soon: Dems Climate and Energy Plan

— By Kate Sheppard

Democratic Senators will discuss the prospects for climate and energy legislation at today's caucus lunch, a topic that was also on the agenda during last week's meeting, which ended before lawmakers could actually debate policy. Today's sessions is expected to provide guidance for what a package of energy and oil-spill related measures might look like. Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he expects to begin debate on the legislation after the July 4 recess.

Ahead of the meeting, 64 state and national environmental groups issued a joint statement to senators calling for the bill to include a cap on carbon dioxide, which remains one of the biggest questions on the package:

Thursday's caucus meeting will be a milestone in the effort to transition America to clean energy and finally address the dangers of carbon pollution. We expect our environmental allies – and all Senators who want to cut America's addiction to imported oil, create jobs, and reduce pollution – to speak out strongly for a truly comprehensive clean energy and climate bill.

With millions of gallons spilled in the Gulf of Mexico and a billion dollars a day going overseas for imported oil, we can no longer afford to delay our transition to clean energy. As President Obama told the nation last Tuesday night, "For decades we have failed to act with the sense of urgency that this challenge requires" and we must not "settle for the paltry limits of conventional wisdom." The time has come to act.

<...>

The caucus meeting is supposed to end around 2 p.m.; I'll have more after that.

[ProSense]

1. No comment? n/t