Big business is now free to blitz the airwaves to attack politicians who support action against climate change, which could smother messages from environmentalists.
However, it is not yet clear whether corporations have the will or the budgets to use the advertising weapon that emerged in January when the US Supreme Court ruled that corporations have the same right as individuals to free political speech, including spending on advertising.
The decision could affect every issue and every political race in this congressional election year, but those pushing for a federal law to limit greenhouse gas emissions say it will hit them harder because business interests have much more money to spend on these campaigns.
“Environmental voices are already far outspent by voices of all sorts of polluting interests, but the Supreme Court decision has really now opened the floodgates for big oil and dirty coal to spend ... much, much more money in the electoral arena,” said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters.
Green groups — including even the powerful Service Employees International Union, which has pushed for cap-and-trade measures as a spur to clean-energy jobs — are at a disadvantage.
“What will happen now is corporate CEOs will be able to freely raid their corporate till and spend their shareholders’ money to advance this political agenda ... to give an even larger voice to corporations and their profit margins,” said Lori Lodes of the employees union.
Legislation to battle global warming is stalled in the US Senate and there is growing pessimism that a law can be passed before November’s elections. A defeat of pro-green candidates could doom the initiative for some time.
Another factor working against those seeking a global warming law is the shrinking of traditional media, said Bob Deans of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Environmental groups used to be able to get free media coverage by pitching stories to reporters. Now many journalists who wrote about those issues are gone, and the space available for coverage of the environment is shrinking.
“When you combine that with this ruling ... it just makes it harder and harder for the real interest of the public to be expressed in that way,” Deans said.
The Supreme Court ruling makes it possible for businesses, unions and interest groups to take aim at political candidates because of their stance on a specific issue.
It is impossible to predict spending on candidate-specific climate change ads, but energy interests spent about 10 times as much as environmental interests in the last election year, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.
In 2008, corporations in the broad energy sector made US$77.7 million in political contributions, with US$35.5 million coming from the oil and gas industries. Republican candidates, most of whom oppose carbon-capping legislation, received 66 percent of the total.
By contrast, environmental groups spent US$5.5 million on political contributions in 2008, with 87 percent of that going to Democrats.
In addition, the Service Employees International Union contributed US$2.7 million, with 95 percent given to Democrats. The union and environmental groups together donated US$8.2 million, a bit more than one-tenth the energy sector’s tally.
However, this is more than a simple financial contest. One energy lobbyist said that many big corporations, including energy firms and automakers, have joined the push for a bill to cap greenhouse emissions and trade allowances for them.
“Nobody wants to not be green,” said Josh Zeib, a lawyer and lobbyist with the firm Bracewell and Giuliani, which handles energy industry clients. “Nobody wants to wander out alienating the public and legislators and making things worse, and that risk is out there for companies who move too aggressively” in political advertising.
One oil industry source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision would be minimal.
“At this time we don’t plan on using corporate funds for this purpose,” the source said. “Everybody’s tightening their belts and looking where they can be economical in their spending.”
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS