Climate Power, a liberal advocacy group, plans to spend $80 million on ads to improve President Biden’s position on environmental issues and inform voters about the impact of legislation he signed last year.
Polls show that few voters are aware of the president’s record on climate issues, and there is widespread dissatisfaction with his handling of the issue, a dynamic that reflects voters’ dissatisfaction with his handling of the economy and other concerns.
The new effort also adds to the constellation of outside groups working to solve one of the Democratic Party’s most vexing problems: how to make a president widely viewed by his party as too old to seek re-election popular enough to win a potential rematch. With former President Donald J. Trump.
Climate Power’s solution is to provide voters with a steady stream of television and digital ads that highlight Mr. Biden’s legislative achievements to protect the environment and contrast them with Mr. Trump, who has mocked climate science, rolled back regulations aimed at cutting emissions and promised to be an effective solution. . Supporting the oil, gas and coal industries.
“There’s a large segment of people who don’t know anything. There’s also a segment of people who want him to do more. There’s also a group that thinks he’s gone too far,” Lori Lodis, executive director of the Climate Power Foundation, said in an interview last week. “We need to make sure that the Biden coalition, the people who put him in office in 2020, see that he delivers on his promises. And he has.”
As with much of Biden’s agenda, his climate policies tend to do well in the polls on their own, but do worse when associated with the president. A Washington Post poll in July showed that 70% of Americans, including 51% of Republicans, want the next president to be someone who favors government action to address climate change. Research conducted by Climate Power showed that 67% of voters believe climate is a “kitchen table issue.”
However, despite the Democratic majority in Congress passing last year, and Biden signing the Inflation Reduction Act — legislation that invests $370 billion in spending and tax breaks into zero-emission forms of energy to fight climate change — there is little evidence of He has received political benefits from voters who share his climate goals.
Last month, The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago found that Mr. Biden’s approval on tackling climate change was 42%, similar to his overall approval rating of 40%, and better than the 33% who approved. In his dealings with the economy.
This poll found that Biden’s climate approval ratings fell from 52% in September 2021, before he signed his landmark climate legislation, and 49% in September 2022, weeks after he signed it.
The 30-second “Climate Power” ads this year, which were funded with help from Future Forward, the independent spending organization blessed by the Biden campaign, focused on efforts to reduce home energy costs and create jobs at factories that make renewable energy products. . Advertising is booming with gains “thanks to Joe Biden’s inflation-reducing law.”
Ms. Lods said the planned $80 million would come from so-called dark money, which donors are not required to disclose under federal law. The Climate Forces political action committee, which can also accept unlimited contributions but must report its donors to the Federal Election Commission, is expected to advertise on Mr. Biden’s behalf next year.
The Climate Power campaign is also drawing praise from top Biden White House aides.
“President Biden has implemented the most ambitious agenda to combat climate change, including signing into law the largest climate investment ever,” said White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O’Malley Dillon. “Climate Power is an important partner to continue demonstrating to the American people that the President is building a clean energy economy that benefits all Americans.”
Part of the challenge of promoting Biden’s climate steps is that younger voters, who polls show care most about the issue, tend to be the most skeptical of his record on the matter. There was great anger over Biden’s approval of Project Willow, an $8 billion oil exploration project on pristine federal land in Alaska, and a pipeline that would transport natural gas from West Virginia to Virginia, which environmentalists opposed.
Ms. Lodes dismissed left-wing anger over Mr. Biden’s climate record and said Climate Power would seek to appeal to a broader group of voters critical of his 2024 coalition.
““There are activists and then there are voters,” she said. “Climate activists are going to push and push. And you know what? In the Biden campaign, the Biden administration needs to push to do more and move forward. But at the end of the day, the fact is that he has done more on climate than any other president in American history.”
Lisa Friedman And Ruth Igelnik Contributed to reports.
