by Steve Milloy, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow and Junkscience.com Founder
As appearing in the Washington Examiner
Democrats are launching a $12 million climate ad campaign with the goal of turning out 2 million “green” voters for the November elections. They imagine the recent passage of the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act,” including its $369 billion spending orgy on wind and solar energy and electric vehicles, will help pull Democratic Senate candidates across the finish line in battleground states.
It’s a curious plan that may be best explained as an election-year payoff from Democratic donors to Democratic media. First, there is absolutely no evidence that climate is at all important to voters in 2022. A recent New York Times poll, in fact, reported that a mere 1% of voters prioritize climate over other issues such as the economy, which garnered 35% of voters.
And climate is not faring any better with voters. In Nevada, where Democrats hope to exploit a hot summer and drought to drag uninspiring party apparatchik Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto past Republican candidate Adam Laxalt, voters aren’t buying climate. A front-page, above-the-fold Washington Post article titled “In fast-warming Nevada, climate bill may not lift Democrats” reports: “Most [voters] said they were focused on providing for their families amid soaring housing costs and gasoline prices. Few of them brought up climate change or were aware the Inflation Reduction Act provided drought relief.”
Cortez Masto pitches, “As you all know, the Western U.S. continues to face a historic drought, and we need to do all we can to combat it.” But voters respond with, “I’ve been not buying a lot of things because I can’t afford it. I’m, like, the kids don’t need juice for school anymore. We’ll just do water.”
