Climate change activists are seeking to use high gas prices to their benefit.
Shhhh! Don’t talk about global warming!
There’s been a change
in climate for Washington’s greenhouse gang, and they’ve come to this
conclusion: To win, they have to talk about other topics, like gas
prices and kids choking on pollutants.
More than two years since Democrats’ cap-and-trade plan
died in Congress, the strategic shift represents a reluctant
acknowledgment from environmentalists that they’ve lost ground by
tackling global warming head-on. Their best bet now lies in a bit of a
bait and switch: Help elect global warming fighters by basing campaigns
on kitchen-table issues.
“You don’t have to be James Carville to figure out that talking about
people’s health and the health of their children … is going to make a
difference to the average voter,” Daniel Weiss, director of climate
strategy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, said.
In particular, the greens are targeting Midwestern swing voters in
advance of the presidential and congressional elections in November.
Earlier this month, the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense
Council made a seven-figure ad buy in swing states featuring young
children with asthma inhalers making their way through the Capitol.
“We’re going to talk a lot about the health implications of dirty
air,” said Heather Taylor, director of NRDC’s political arm. “I think
that the Midwest is one of those places where [there are] a million
great clean energy stories, especially. And they’re not being told right
now, because we’ve tended to be in other markets. That’s an area where
we feel like it’s time to go tell those stories.”
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