April 2010

Clean Energy Climate Legislation: Social Media Does the Environment Good

Anyone in the PR business, the media business or just about any business you care to name knows the value of social media and multi-media campaigns. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are ubiquitous, and materials disseminated through these channels can often pack a serious punch, not just by going viral or delivering breaking news, but by offering the public the kind of powerful visual images that can't be conveyed as well through conventional media.

We've all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. Never was that more true than in a video posted by the non-profit advocacy group VoteVets.org. The organization's website states that it "focuses on nonpartisan education and advocacy on behalf of veterans and their families." The founders are Iraq War veterans, and they're putting their patriotic bona fides behind a message of support for climate change legislation.

The video illustrates in a vivid and shocking way the damage we inflict on our own troops when we spend money on oil from the Middle East. It's not a new refrain (several prominent conservatives and other less typical climate legislation champions are pro-environment because, self admittedly, they are pro-energy security), but it's the most striking visualization I've seen yet.

Cleantech companies and their PR firms should get creative in cultivating social media the way VoteVets.org did--creatively, succinctly and provocatively, although perhaps not with footage of IEDs in Iraq. Visual media programs don't take much money these days, and they reach people on a visceral level that bylines and text-heavy blog posts simply can't replicate. 

Posted by Alison Mickey on April 30, 2010 at 6:12 PM
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Wind, Baby Wind! Cape Wind Approval Could Drive Offshore Wind Boom

In what may be a landmark moment in the development of offshore wind in the US, the Department of the Interior today approved the Cape Wind project. The project, first initiated nine years ago, had been stalled by community and political opposition due to concerns about the impact the project would have on aesthetic views from Cape Cod.

Approval of the Cape Wind project is a major government relations and public relations boost for the wind industry, as project developers, financiers and clean-energy supporters look to develop the gigawatts of power available along the eastern seaboard. As the most hotly contested offshore wind project in history, Cape Wind could be a bellwether for future projects up and down the east coast.

With the WindPower 2010 conference less than a month away, Cape Wind approval is sure to dominate discussion at the event. While Europe has had significant offshore wind power generation for nearly two decades, the US has lagged behind due to coastal community opposition and the lack of longer-term tax incentives which can help fund projects through the years of development it takes to get them up and running.

No matter how you slice it, the DOI decision is a major PR and GR win for the cleantech industry.

Posted by Jason Morris on April 28, 2010 at 1:48 PM
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Green Public Affairs: Will Lessons Learned from Healthcare Result in an Eco-Pragmatic Approach to Climate Change Legislation?

Washington Post business columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winner Steven Pearlstein had an interesting column recently on what the passage of healthcare legislation may portend for climate change legislation. Pearlstein thinks that Republicans and Democrats alike received a hefty reality check in the aftermath of the healthcare battle:

"Democrats and their liberal supporters saw how much good could be accomplished by not allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good. And Republicans and the business lobby were reminded of the concessions they could have won but didn't by their decision to abandon bipartisan compromise and instead trying to kill the legislation altogether."

In addition to apparent political momentum, people like Nobel Prize-winner Paul Krugman are moving beyond thoughtful Op-Ed pieces and laying out strong economic cases for tackling climate change (see Krugman's recent manifesto in the New York Times Magazine, titled "Building a Green Economy").

With John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham expected to introduce climate change legislation in the coming weeks, columnists like Pearlstein believe a new mood of pragmatism may be infecting all parties, from environmentalists to renewable energy associations and even the oil and gas industries.

Given the possibility--perhaps less remote now than before even in the face of a renewed focus on immigration and finance reform--of at least moderately meaningful climate change legislation, renewable energy companies and trade associations should amp up their cleantech government relations programs to secure their seats at the negotiating table. As Disraeli famously said, "History is made by those who show up;" or in this case, climate change legislation. 

Posted by Alison Mickey on April 22, 2010 at 12:38 PM
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