Climate ads slam Nelson, Burr over votes on EPA rules

Environmental groups and other supporters of climate change legislation on Wednesday launched $2 million worth of television ads that slam a bipartisan trio of senators for backing efforts to kill EPA greenhouse gas rules, while applauding two Democrats that opposed the plan.

The ads – sponsored by the League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, Service Employees International Union and VoteVets.org – are the opening salvos of a planned $11 million campaign for passage of broad climate and energy legislation this year.
 
The initial spots attack Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) for supporting Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) legislation to block EPA climate change rules. Murkowski’s measure failed earlier in June in a 47-53 vote.

The ad against Burr, in a riff on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, depicts cleanup workers pulling him from the ocean soaked in oil. “Senator Burr’s record is a little oily,” the narrator states as the ad shows the workers trying to clean him off. “Big oil has showered him with hundreds of thousands in campaign cash, and when it came time to hold polluters accountable, Senator Burr voted no.”

The groups are also releasing ads that cheer Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who both opposed Murkowski’s plan, for backing “clean energy” policies.
 
The groups say the ads – tailored for each of the five lawmakers – will run statewide for the next two weeks, and an online campaign will be launched next week.
 
The ads come as Senate Democrats grapple with a strategy aimed at securing 60 votes for climate and energy legislation this year. The vote on Murkowski’s measure was seen as a potential litmus test for determining where votes may lie on a strategy that could include a first-ever mandated price on industrial carbon emissions.
 
Reid’s lead role in determining a legislative strategy made him an obvious choice for the first group of ads, while McCaskill’s fence-sitting position in the overall climate debate also was a factor.

“So with her, it’s definitely a carrot approach,” SEIU spokesman Teddy Davis said. “It’s very tough in Missouri but we’re trying to keep her on the good progressive side.” The ad praises McCaskill and urges viewers to “tell her to keep fighting for a clean energy-climate plan and the Missouri jobs that come with it.”
 
Nelson is a Democrat whose opposition to cap-and-trade and likely other carbon pricing strategies is well known, and Johanns was included as well to highlight the position of the Nebraska Senate delegation to that state’s voters.

“It makes sense to push both of them in the same state,” Davis said, adding that Johanns probably would not have been otherwise singled out. “He’s been where Ben Nelson has been,” Davis said.
 
Burr – while never considered a swing vote in the debate – was targeted as a coastal senator.
 
The groups plan to roll out a broader series of ads leading up to what they hope will be a vote on energy legislation this summer. Reid in July is planning to bring up legislation addressing the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, as well as potentially a package of renewable and more conventional energy production mandates and incentives.

A carbon pricing plan – at least one targeting electric utilities – may also be initially included or considered during floor debate.