Brian Willis, 202.675.2386, Brian.Willis@sierraclub.org
Click here to view the advertisement video
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Sierra Club announced today that it will be launching a five-figure digital advertising campaign against the Trump Administration’s efforts to force taxpayers and electricity customers to pay tens of billions of dollars to bail out uneconomic coal and nuclear plants. The advertisements will run on Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook, and will be geographically targeted to viewers in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest who are likely to bear the most significant costs of a bailout.
“We’re launching this digital advertising campaign to fight the Trump Administration’s ridiculous obsession with propping up dirty, expensive coal plants that are increasingly being replaced by cleaner, cheaper competitors like solar and wind,” said Jonathan Levenshus, Sierra Club’s Senior Campaign Representative for Federal Strategy. “Bailing out the dying coal industry has already been rejected by FERC once, and this latest scam has been universally panned for good reason. It's the equivalent of trying to bringing back the whale oil industry to replace electric light bulbs."
The announcement comes on the heels of recent media reports that Donald Trump is considering nominating Bernard McNamee, a current senior DOE official and strong proponent of the the administration’s previous failed bailout attempt, to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). McNamee’s consideration spawned an immediate backlash and accusations that the Trump Administration was attempting to politicize the historically independent regulatory body in order to bail out coal plant owners who supported his 2016 presidential campaign.
“Coal plant retirements are the result of electricity markets weeding out inefficient, expensive, and dirty resources and replacing them with cleaner, cheaper technologies that customers are demanding,” said Levenshus. “With no serious justification, the Trump Administration is trying to blow up this time tested process for billions of dollars in costs, all so that a handful of billionaire executives can keep these dinosaur plants, which pollute wide swaths of our country, open for a few more years. It’s not only reckless and irresponsible, it’s also an ethics red flag.”
The advertisements will link to a video titled, “5 Reasons That Trump's Big Coal Bailout Is A Bad Idea,” and prompt viewers to sign a petition against the bailouts. The advertisements will run until the end of September and may be extended beyond that.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.